Jade Likes Nice Guys
by OneHorseShay
Summary: Sequel to iActually Like Mean Girls. Freddie has made his move to L.A. and Hollywood Arts to start the hard road of a new life while balancing his new relationship with Jade when neither can say 'I love you'.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Hello my dear readers. I'm back with the sequel to _iActually like Mean Girls_. I hope you will enjoy this story as much as the other one. This story runs _concurrently_ with the Victorious episodes after Locked Up (except for 'Helen Back Again' as I established in 'iActually Like Mean Girls' that episode had already taken place) in an obvious AU fashion with Freddie (with all the established happenstance of the previous story) being there as if he had become a regular cast member of the television show. The story may contain any possible events of future episodes of iCarly after the 'iSeddie Arc' that could be relevant. Oh, and somehow Trina is still at Hollywood Arts when she should have graduated. I'm just trying to make heads or tails about how the timeline works in Victorious and iCarly, but I believe mine is more consistent. Enjoy!**

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><p>Jade Likes Nice Guys<br>By OneHorseShay  
>Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sakes, don't sue.<br>Rating: TVPG/T Language, Adult Themes, Possible Violence  
>Pairing(s): Established JadeFreddie, other Victorious pairings explored.

Summary: Sequel to iActually Like Mean Girls. Freddie has made his move to L.A. and Hollywood Arts to start his long hard road towards a new life, but now he has to make his new life work along with balancing his new relationship with Jade when neither can say 'I love you' _in the good way_ to use Freddie's words.

Chapter 1

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Freddie Benson let out a breath with his right hand hanging on to the cross strap of his blue book bag as he stepped through the entrance of Hollywood Arts and into the first day of his senior year at his new school… in a new city … in a new state… in a new life.

'_No pressure at all Freddie'_, crossed his mind.

He glanced across the main hallway and stairwell to see several dozen students milling around and catching up with one another. Some of them were already in some costumes or interesting headwear. Others were playing various instruments and entertaining any student passing by them.

However, his presence wasn't overlooked for long as a few took notice that he was standing just inside the school. They started whispering to one another and calling attention to the others that hadn't noticed him. He quickly became the apparent topic for the students loitering in the hallway. A number of female students immediately started approaching him wearing smiles and their excitement at seeing him on their faces.

His hand tightened around the strap of his workhorse of a book bag as some form of comfort with what he was about to face either being swamped like he was at WebiCon from the girls or be inundated with questions about why he quite iCarly or why he moved to Los Angeles or if it was true that he was dating Jadelyn "Jade" West. The book bag was still something familiar and he was particularly glad at this moment he hadn't gotten rid of it for a new Hollywood Arts book bag. He felt he needed at least something old to anchor himself as he started this new chapter in his life (even if it had a patch of the Hollywood Arts' HA logo sewn on the back), but that was not the only source of comfort as his left hand swung loose by his side and he felt the gentle touch of another hand slide into his and fingers slip between his fingers.

He glanced to his left to see a very irritate looking Jade West. She had turned a harsh glare at the approaching females and daring any of them to cross her. None of them took her up on her offer as they stopped in their tracks. The pale teenager held her gaze on them as she apparently was determined to establish from the outset that Freddie belonged to her and he was off the market. They started backing away, unwilling to challenge one of the school's Alpha females. She could destroy any of them socially last year and they didn't doubt she could still do the same even if it was a new school year.

The guys who may have been curious to speak with him were also wary of approaching the web-celebrity, so they were willing to give the couple a wide berth.

Freddie let out a breath and looked to his dark haired girlfriend. Jade West dropped her harsh glare in an instant and gave him a playful smile that he knew she usually hid under her mean girl persona. "Still protecting me?" he asked with a hint of innocent mischievousness.

She snorted out a soft laugh. "Yes."

He shook his head and let a relieved smile cross his face.

They were about to turn the corner to head for Jade's locker when one bubbly redhead cut through the dispersing crowd with a bright smile on her face and waved at the couple. "Hey!"

Tori and André were right behind her, maybe not as outwardly expressive in their happiness, but still glad to see them if their more muted happy expressions were any indication. The songsmith gave a nod of his head and spoke, "What's up?"

"Hey," Freddie replied with a happy expression at seeing some of the group while Jade acknowledged them with a nod of her head and a slight smile. He let out a breath as continued, but kept his focus on the numerous students still in the hallway, some of which were still focusing their attention on him, "Nothing much. We just got here and Jade had to save me from getting swamped."

Jade smiled wickedly.

Tori nodded then spoke up with a sympathetic tone, "It can be a little overwhelming."

He let out a soft laugh, "That sums it up and it's only been less than five minutes."

"It was a little weird for me too when I got here. It certainly isn't a normal high school. I'm still getting use to it at times."

"That's not what I'm worried about. I've been through weird and still have plenty of more stories to tell you, it's just…" he trailed off watching some students watching them and perhaps trying to overhear their conversation.

Tori gave him a sympathetic expression.

"Everyone is going to want to know '_Why?_'" he finished in a somewhat tired voice.

André spoke up hoping to reassure the former Seattleite, "It's not going to be a problem. It's all going to blow over and the novelty of you here will wear off in no time."

Freddie gave a soft laugh. "Fade into obscurity? That would be kind of ironic at a performing arts high school."

The songsmith shrugged a shoulder as he replied half jokingly, "Well… you know what I mean."

"Yeah, thanks."

"No problem," André replied casually.

"_But…_ I don't think it'll be that simple." Freddie glanced towards Jade then back to the other three. "It's been a couple of weeks and it's kind of died down on the internet, but…" Freddie stopped for a moment as he saw a few already texting on their phones and the paranoid side of him thought the subject could be about him. The rest followed his gaze to some of the other students standing away from them texting away on their phones.

Tori motioned towards him with a hand as she suggested, "How about you make a video for your Slap page? Maybe included a little bit in your profile video? You don't have to tell them everything, but maybe just enough to satisfy a little of their curiosity?"

Freddie shrugged. "Maybe, but I'm not sure exactly what I could tell them without the entire truth. None of it lends itself to being editable to save any of us from embarrassment, assuming anyone would believe me and not just call me a liar."

Tori and André shared a knowing glance about the truthfulness of that statement while Cat shook her head and frowned with her sadness reaching her eyes. Jade had told them what had happened that Saturday night the following day and initially they didn't want to believe what had happened even if they saw some of the events that led up to the confrontation. Those doubts were easily swept away when they saw Freddie trying to hide some of his soreness during Sunday's lunch and the news that he was going to move in with Jade and her mother. The latter news was a shock to say the least for them with Beck being silent so far about the news when it finally reached him.

A beeping sound came from Freddie's pocket and he quickly reached inside to dig out his phone. Freddie glanced at the pear shaped device to check his alarm he set as to remind him not to be late for his first class. "Oh," he commented absently at seeing the time. He looked to Jade and whispered, "I have to get to science, so I'll see you in Sikowitz's class." He gave her a soft squeeze of her hand still holding his hand then slipped away. "Later," he called out to the rest as the called out in return.

Jade watched for a moment with a crooked smile and blinked several times as she had expected a goodbye kiss before he headed down the hall. He pulled out spare map of the school from a pocket of his book bag marked with the rooms he hadn't become familiar with during the workshop.

She ignored the others as they gave departing remarks before separating to head for their first classes of the day, all except for Tori.

Tori whispered in a joking manner to Jade, "I guess he won't get tea poured on his head in Sikowitz's class on his first day?"

Jade slightly frowned and turned her attention to the brunette. She countered sarcastically, "You might if you rub on this boyfriend and make goo-goo eyes at him."

Tori smirked and gave it right back to her with pointed remark, "Freddie made goo-goo eyes at me first."

Jade instantly recalled a few weeks back when Freddie was telling the story of when Sam first suspected Steven of cheating on Carly with Tori. Freddie had no problem saying that he found Tori attractive (maybe partially because of Tori's resemblance to Shelby Marx) when Sam first pulled up a picture of Tori from theSlap. She at the time instinctively wanted to be jealous by the fact that Freddie had at one time turned his eye towards Tori of all people, but she refused to give into her baser instincts. Freddie looking at Tori happened before they even met and she had made it a point to herself and Beck during their discussion the afternoon he had returned from Yerba that there was nothing wrong with Freddie's behavior when he was single and she was not going to turn around and believe something was wrong with it now that they were together. She was determined to avoid feeling any undue jealousy as that was one of the many factors that she knew all too well had cost her Beck and she was not going to repeat her mistake.

Her instinctive reaction was further swept away (and feeling a momentary bit of shame from her initial internal reaction) when Freddie concluded his story with Carly hitting him with the orange for having the nerve to be attracted to a girl while he was single. Jade didn't care what Carly's reason for it: Carly being latently jealous, her not being the center of Freddie's attention or somehow being insensitive about the situation even if Carly herself at the time thought Steven was being faithful. She had wished Carly was there when he had told the story so she could have thrown an orange at the web-hostess or maybe one of her spare scissors.

Instead of the memory triggering her momentary anger, the raven haired teenager looked at it from another perspective. She wickedly grinned back as she replied, "That's because you look like Shelby Marx."

"I do not!" the brunette shouted out of reflex.

Jade raised her voice to the nineteen-forties actress pitch, "I do not look like Shelby Marx."

Tori frowned and shook her head as she eyed the pale teenager.

Jade grinned for a moment before leaving the actress standing there fuming and heading to her first period class.

Sikowitz's Advanced Acting Class  
>Hollywood Arts<p>

After the first two periods of the day, Freddie met up with Jade just before he entered Sikowitz's class. The dark haired teenager entered due to his gentlemanly respect and maybe some last minute apprehension on his part.

A number of students had already filed inside the classroom and had taken familiar colorful seats. Some of them Freddie of course recognized, such as Cat and Robbie with Rex on his lap, along with Sinjin and Ava and a few from the workshop sitting on the other side of the class, but the rest were strangers and they immediately turned their attention to him.

Freddie looked around not sure where he should take a seat and caught a glance from Jade for a moment seeing that she apparently was debating where she was going to sit as well.

The problem was surprisingly solved with Beck waving them over to sit beside him and behind Cat and Robbie (and Rex).

Freddie gave a thankful nod to Beck as he took the seat on the outer edge of that side of chairs with Jade sitting between her former and current boyfriend.

Tori and André were the last ones to enter and grabbed their seats as they chattered to one another.

Sikowitz entered through the entrance beside the stage and dropped his bag at the back of the platform. He opened up his arms and announced, "Good morning on this wonderful first day of school! I like to welcome all to my advance acting class. I know that this will be a fantastic semester."

The eccentric teacher glanced around to actually see who was in his class. Only one face jumped out at him which he smiled towards. "This is a pleasant surprise Freddie. I thought they were pulling a joke on me when I got my student roster and saw your name on it."

"Well it is a surprise to me. I just have to see how the day turns out whether it's a pleasant one."

He pointed both his pointer fingers at the former Tech-Producer. "Touché."

"I'm glad to see I'm not entirely rusty with my fencing," Freddie softly laughed.

Sikowitz laughed for a moment then replied, "That's the spirit. Now let me go over what will be focusing on this semester then we'll just do some warm up acting exercises to get the creative juices flowing."

The acting teacher himself seemed board to tears as he went through the housekeeping part of the course to let them know what they were going to be doing until Christmas. However, they all suffered through it together quickly which allowed them to perform some improvisational scenes.

At one point, Freddie and Cat were exchanging dialogue on the mini-stage. Sikowitz had snuck between the seats of the class and leaned between Beck and Jade. He whispered to the dark haired actress, "He seems like a natural."

Jade smirked as she replied smugly, "He use to perform in front of a million people on an almost weekly basis; what did you expect?"

The drama teacher shook his head and put on a good natured smile. "I was hoping he could call on the experience at will. I didn't want to watch him struggle through the course."

Jade turned her head slightly to meet balding teacher eyes as she raised an eyebrow. He stood up and moved toward the front of the class before she could make any comment.

Sikowitz called out jovially, "That's fantastic you two, but I need to cover one last thing before you go."

Cat and Freddie acknowledged him with their respective smiles and headed for their seats. After the students took their seats, Sikowitz began, "This is odd bringing this up since this is a senior class, but we have to take a moment to talk about 'The Bird Scene'." Sikowitz turned his attention to Freddie. "I'm sorry to be putting you on the spot like this Freddie, but it's policy."

Freddie raised an eyebrow and asked cautiously the title sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it for a moment, "The Bird Scene?"

Jade closed her eyes for a moment and sighed out, "Really Sikowitz? You really think Freddie needs to do the bird scene?"

The drama teacher let out a sigh and patiently explained, "Jade, everyone must perform and pass the 'The Bird Scene' in order to perform in any production or join any club."

The dark brunette motioned over to her boyfriend as she replied, "He's preformed in front of a million people probably more times than any of us have performed here; do you really think he needs to learn that lesson? You'd think he'd already know it by now."

The former Tech-Producer finally placed the name then looked to Jade to ask, "Oh, that play about a bird where you're suppose to be your own judge about your performance?"

Sikowitz frowned as he looked to Jade and stated in a tone that showed his irritation, "Jade, you were not supposed to tell him."

Freddie quickly looked to the acting teacher and spoke up, "Hey, it just happened to come up in a conversation we had during the workshop. Neither of us had any idea at the time I was going to be staying in L.A."

Sikowitz sighed then decided to take a seat on the top step of the stage. He rested his elbows on his knees and rested his chin on top of his balled fists. "The point is that you need to believe in your own choice when performing. You're not supposed to worry about the approval of others."

Freddie replied casually, "And as I told Jade, it's still a bunch of nonsense."

Sikowitz lifted his head up and looked to Freddie with wide eyes as he replied, "Pardon."

The rest of the class looked to him with a hint of confusion.

Freddie shook his head and let out a sigh, "I guess I'll just go ahead and get this out of the way: iCarly wasn't good because we thought it was good, even if we thought it was good, it was good because everyone else thought it was good. There are plenty of people on the internet that think that they're great, but everyone else disagrees with them and they're not popular. How many actors and actresses have you met that think they're the greatest things on earth, but you know deep down they stink? The ultimate judge of our talents is not ourselves, but the audience. If the audience doesn't like it then there are no more performances, so your lesson is wrong. Besides, if it was true, how could you ever grade us on a performance? If you think we should get a D on something, but we think we should get an A, who is right? What grade are we going to get?"

The rest of the class looked at him with a mix of confusion and strange ramifications if Sikowitz point was taken to its logical conclusion.

Jade started laughing and wrapped an arm around Freddie's shoulders. "He didn't pass the test, he broke the test."

Sikowitz gaped like a fish for a moment until he finally mouthed, "We… I never thought about it that way. It's meant to be a confidence building exercise and ignore the critics."

"But I'm talking about the audience, not critics. I already know to ignore them; that's why we started iCarly. Long story short, we didn't like our teachers saying our choices about entrees in a talent show were wrong, so we started performing whatever we wanted on-line as a way to show them." Freddie shook his head as he didn't want all the other associated memories to flood his mind at the mention of iCarly. "Why don't you do it like every other kind of teacher? Teach us how to do it then encourage us on what we did well and tell us how to improve on our weaknesses in a supportive manner?"

Sikowitz tilted his head to the side and replied, "We could do that."

Asphalt Café  
>Hollywood Arts<br>Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Freddie was seated at the Hollywood Arts group's usually round blue table between Jade on his right and Tori on his left. Andra sat to Tori's right with Cat and to his right while Beck sat beside Robbie and directly across from Jade. They group idly chatted about their morning classes, some in which a few shared with one another.

Tori gave a soft smile as she distractedly commented and glanced over her schedule, "You kind of burst Sikowitz's bubble."

"I didn't mean to, but that's just the way I see it. Life has taught me that and if we are just talking about critics than we're in agreement anyway. So I passed the test without taking it."

Tori looked up from the paper and gave a slight role of her eyes with a soft smile. The rest nodded and gave a fleeting look towards one another. She looked at her schedule again then pointed to a spot on the paper. "We have Mister Allen's Directing Class together next period."

Freddie commented, "I'm still trying to wrap my head around such short class. Just four and a half weeks?"

Jade spoke up and answered in a casual tone, "Yeah, it's a fractional credit. It's really part of one whole class. The fourth class for the semester usually ties it all together. They split it up like that so it helps to balance the classes in having access to the Black Box, the music rooms, etcetera, because they have to offer so many classes for everyone to get a chance to fulfill their credits that some classes can't help but overlap in the same period. Split up the class and the teachers can teach the same class in a different order, so when one class needs something, the other class is covering something else that doesn't need that particular room or something."

Freddie nodded along to the explanation. "Makes sense."

Cat smiled as she sat her drink down after taking a quick sip. "I loved my costume design class just before school let out for the summer."

"Little Bow Peep?" Freddie commented with a soft laugh.

The redhead giggled that he had remembered after she had shown him a few of her pictures about some of the costumes she made.

"You looked adorable," he commented sweetly.

"Thanks," she replied with a giggle then turned back to her food.

Tori grinned, "I'm excited about this class. I'll get the chance to direct my first play."

Freddie nodded along as he sipped his drink. He sat the beverage down and turned his attention to the brunette. "I'm kind of excited too. I finally get some real creative input on a production."

Tori raised an eyebrow reflecting the rest of the table's confusion other than Jade. The brunette whispered out as her confusion laced her voice, "I don't understand. You did how many skits—"

Freddie shook his head as he picked up a French fry, but waited to pop it in his mouth to answer, "I didn't get a lot of creative input. Sam would always shoot down my ideas and Carly would just go along with it, but I think I influenced them more than I think in hindsight."

Jade mumbled under her breath before taking a sip of her drink, "Explains why most of their stuff on the show sucks now."

Freddie passed a glance to his girlfriend as he chewed the fried potato and easily heard her remark, but remained silent due to any disagreements they may have were between them and private. Also, a part of him regretfully agreed with her statement after some morbid curiosity got the better of him and watched a few clips, but not entire episodes, of iCarly as the girls had apparently decided to start the show again without him.

The Seattleite finished his last French fry and took a quick sip from his drink. "I need to get going. I have to stop by my locker before class."

The brunette sitting to his left nodded in agreement. "I'll go ahead and go with you," commented as she finished one last morsel of her lunch then stood up.

Freddie looked to his girlfriend and smiled. Jade thought that Freddie was going to kiss her cheek, but she noticed that he gave Beck a passing reserved glance after looking to her then stood up from the table. She held her gaze on Freddie as he turned and walked with Tori back towards one of the schools entrances. Beck watched both of them in silence as he finished his lunch.

After Freddie made a quick stop at his undecorated locker, the pair headed Mister Allen's class. As they made their way towards their destination, they walked past a number of the decorated lockers. Tori stopped for a moment and turned to her walking companion. She smiled as she raised her finger. "Your locker is still grey. You need to decorate it."

Freddie cracked a smile. "The lockers were hard to miss during the summer, but how do I decorate it? Are there any guidelines?"

Tori shrugged her shoulders. "It's an expression of yourself or something that means something to you."

"I guess that's something I need to think about."

"Yeah, you have time. I didn't figure it out until after I passed the Bird Scene."

The brown haired teenager gave a soft laugh, "But I just got past the Bird Scene."

"That's right," Tori replied with an embarrassed smile. "I wish I would have thought about that sooner."

Andrew Allen's Directing Class  
>Hollywood Arts<br>Wednesday, September 7, 2011

The last period of the day was wrapping up as Freddie and Tori sat beside each other in normal school desks as Mister Allen had spent most of the class going through what was going to be covered in the course and what was expected of them for the next four and a half weeks after brief introductions all around. Thankfully, Mister Allen stopped the wave of questions towards Freddie from a number of students with his commanding presence as he was a tall man, with light brown hair with his part falling just onto his forehead with a thin beard in the five o'clock shadow manner. After he established who was in charge of the class, he moved onto his class overview.

He concluded his 'lecture' with one last bit of instruction with a smile, "You will be writing and directing a one-act play before the end of the class. We will be working with the stagecraft class, so you don't have to worry about having to do double duty in worrying about the 'nity-grity' side production as you should have already covered that in a previous class. Because the size of the class and time constraints of four and a half weeks, I'm going to allow you to pair off to co-direct the production, but your performances will reflect on the other. You share the rewards of a well directed play, but you also share the failures of such a production. So, you should think very hard on whether you want to trust someone to pair off or who your partner will be."

A number of students immediately discreetly or not so discreetly looked in Freddie's direction. Freddie glanced to Tori and whispered, "Do you want to go ahead and pair off? Or do you have someone else—"

Tori shook her head. "No, I think it'll be great to work on it together."

He let out a relief breath. He motioned his head towards Tori for those that his eyes had met. There was a look of disappointment in their eyes, but Freddie couldn't help the way they felt.

The final bell rang and the students' immediately jumped out of their seats out of habit. Mister Allen gave a friendly smile and waved his students off to exit the classroom.

As Tori and Freddie were leaving and making there way towards the main hallway, Freddie commented, "The closest experience I have is writing with Carly and Sam skits for the show and Carly was the directing force behind them."

Tori shrugged a shoulder. "This isn't much different and I think you may have had more influence than you think. They're like one act plays… we could stick to comedy?"

The brown eye teenager slightly smirked. "I think I'd be comfortable with that."

Tori held her chin for a moment and tapped over her lips with her right pointer finger as she thought for a moment. She let go of her chin and raised her hand as she suggested, "How about… a brother finds out his adopted sister is really a space alien?"

Freddie thought on the idea. It sounded absolutely ridiculous… he loved it. He snorted out with a laugh, "Sounds like fun."

**Author's Note: I just saw the latest Jade with Tots video (I will be writing a Jade/Freddie version of that some point down the line in the story). I enjoyed it myself, but what I found to be the most ironic part and surprising about it is that if Beck would do that in the show, as in just talk to her and express his thoughts and feelings on something he disagrees with than treat her like a child, then I wouldn't have had one of my major basis for them breaking up in 'iActually Like Mean Girls'.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Freddie Benson's Room  
>West Residence<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Wednesday, September 7, 2011<p>

Freddie let out a tired breath as he dropped his book bag by the side of the door and entered his bedroom. He dropped in his chair and let out a tired, but relieved breath after the long day at school. He gave his room a quick glance over: the cover of his bed was pulled back with solid color bed sheets; he did however keep a Galaxy Wars pillowcase. He had his rocket lamp sitting on the nightstand on the bed's left side. Under the lamp was a picture of him and Jade embracing one another as they looked towards the camera taken during the last few days of the workshop. On the other side of the bed on display was his fencing foil and face mask that he didn't believe that he was going to get a chance to use in the near future with his busy schedule.

Past the stand and pushed against the opposite wall was his dresser drawer. The dresser top was decorated with several of his action figures posing in various action stances. The small specimen jar that held the burnt out tracking chip that his mother had placed just under the skin in the back of his head sat on top of the dresser drawers. Jade had wanted him to throw it away, but he decided to keep it as a reminder of how far some people would go in trying to control him, including his own mother and that he would be far more careful in who he trusted.

On the same wall as the dresser was decorated around the window with his various science fiction movie posters and the commemorative display plaque of his _Star Trek_ Phaser, Communicator and Tricorder. Rounding out the area was his PearPod docking stand.

Against the third wall where the door to his room was located there was a nice flat screen television.

So in the end, the guest bedroom was surprisingly easy to turn into his sanctuary.

He turned in the chair for a moment to face his desk that was pushed against the wall on the right side of the room similar to how he had his desk set up in his room in Seattle; however he had only one of his desktop computers and one of his monitors set up. Tucked away at the far end of the desk beside the computer tower was his eight-core, three gigahertz server he had originally installed for iCarly to bump up the speed for the site during rehab from his accident. He made it a point to take the server before leaving Seattle. Could that be construed to be petty payback? Perhaps, but he wasn't a part of the show anymore, so he didn't see the point in letting them have a nearly three thousand dollar piece of equipment. He figured if the show was truly important to Carly then she should be putting her own money into the show. It was just one of the items that had joined a long list of things that he felt that Carly never showed any appreciation towards him. The Colonel on the other hand had reimbursed him for the equipment Cort had damaged during his brief internship before the former Tech-Producer left for L.A.

He closed his eyes as he enjoyed the moment after his first day of school and started unconsciously start slowly turning the chair around its axis. The only thing to really complain about, which really wasn't worth complaining about, was people's natural curiosity about him being at the school. No one had picked on him or insulted him. He didn't have anyone give him any trouble nor did any of his teachers say something insulting or degrading.

He let a brief smile cross his features at remembering sending an anonymous picture to Mister Howard's wife of Mister Howard making out with Miss Briggs in the teacher's lounge as a parting gift. He heard the divorce was becoming quite messy for the hateful, bitter man.

Of course, thinking back on Ridgeway brought to the forefront of his mind the people he hadn't spent his first day of school accompanying.

No Gibby or Wendy or Shane.

No Sam.

No Carly.

The expected mixed emotions poured into his head and heart as he thought on the girls. There was no figuring out which classes or lunches they could be sharing. There was no Groovie Smoothie celebration of starting the new school year and no planning for a celebratory iCarly episode.

Those were just all the details to the point: they simply weren't together.

The iCarly Trio was broken or more accurately, the illusion of a trio was broken.

His life there may have been chizz, but it was his familiar chizzy life and had its own strange sense of comfort… that he was determined to get over.

He shook his head to try to clear his head because he was not going to let his great day be spoiled by past regrets and heartache. The last thing he wanted to do to end the day was to wallow in that mess.

"Freddie?" he heard Jade's soft voice call out his name from the doorway.

He opened his eyes and turned in his chair to see the raven hair teenager leaning against and resting the side of her head against the door frame.

She gave him a soft smile and asked with evident concern in her voice, "Are you alright?"

He opened his mouth to speak, but his brain wouldn't send his thoughts to be verbalized.

She frowned at seeing his inability to initially respond. During the last few weeks, she had figured out what that particular facial expression meant for him then he would start talking about something random, but not as something as random as Cat might mention. One idea she had been debated for that last two weeks came to the forefront of her mind on how to deal with his silence, but she'd have to see into the possibility tomorrow. In the meantime, she pushed off the door frame to right herself then walked over to Freddie's seated position. She rested her hands on each of the respective arm rests of the chair and leaned forward so she was looking directly into his eyes. Her eye colored shifted more towards the blue spectrum of her bluish/green eye color as the waning light of the day was shining through the window upon the couple.

She smiled warmly at him then gave him a slow peck on the lips. Once she pulled back to meet his smile, she whispered, "Just talk, I'll listen."

He cracked a smile then began to let the words flow, "I was just thinking about today and one thought led to another… a part of me misses the illusion. This has been a great couple of weeks, but it hasn't washed away everything. Seattle was still home even if a good portion of it was chizz. I was taking a moment to deal or try not to deal, because I don't want to end this day thinking about that."

She nodded along and looked to him sympathetically then a thought occurred to her. She let a wicked smile played on her face as she replied, "Then let's think about something else."

The pale actress leaned forward to capture his lips again, but this time Freddie was just as eager to meet her kiss. They traded dominance of the kiss for a few seconds until he opened his mouth to give a slight nibble to her bottom lip then on her top lip that brought a slight groan from her throat. She responded by lifting her left leg to rest across his thighs then followed with her right leg as to sit across his lap. She wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and deepened the kiss further while his right hand rested on her right hip and his left on her black stockings covered leg. She barely parted her lips and allowed her tongue to brush against his bottom lip.

The only thoughts Freddie were having at the moment was to thank God that he decided to get a sturdy chair for his desk instead of the old red stool he brought from home and debating how gentlemanly would it be for him to slide his left hand a little further up her thigh as his thumb was already just under the hem of her loose dark grey skirt.

She pulled her lips away and leaned her head back slightly to meet his eyes again. She grinned playfully, "So what are you thinking about right now?"

"You… and that I can wait to deal a little more tomorrow."

"Good… because as much as I would like to continue, I was checking to see if you wanted to grab something before dinner with me."

He smiled for a moment at the concern from his girlfriend. He chuckled, "I would like that, but…"

She raised an eyebrow and lifted a corner of her mouth as she asked, "What?"

He leaned forward to rest his forehead on her forehead and whispered in a conspiratorial manner, "Think we can spare five more minutes?"

Jade snorted out a playful laugh then whispered, "Yes," the leaned forward once more to capture his lips.

Guidance Counselor's Office  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Thursday, September 8, 2011

The time was just around two in the afternoon (and cutting into the start of his directing class) when Freddie looked around the office examining the various decorations of the arts and drama. He held back a smirk as he looked at the display of various lotions that Lane had sitting beside his desk. He thought for a moment that he should just give his mother's phone number to Lane to help him out on his obvious skin condition.

The African-American guidance counselor was seated in his hanging webbed wicker chair and propped a foot on the short decorative carved wooden table that dominated the center of the conference area of the office. "So, Freddie… I just wanted to talk to you and see how you're adjusting to being here in L.A. and at Hollywood Arts." Lane shrugged a shoulder, "I wanted to let you know that you can come by and talk anytime. I know it must be hard and quite stressful transitioning to a new place."

Freddie walked back around the worn leather couch then took a seat across from Lane. He rubbed his palms up and down his jeans for a moment then laced his fingers to rest his forearms on his knees.

"Mister Alexander—"

The African-American Counselor waved him off and laughed, "You can call me Lane."

"Okay Mister Lane," Freddie replied with a nod.

The laid back guidance counselor laughed a second time, "You don't have to call me mister, just Lane."

Freddie cracked a hesitant smile. "Well… Lane… I'm not sure why I should talk to you at all."

Lane gave a slight frown as he asked, "Why do you say that?"

Freddie ran his tongue across the inside of bottom lip as he decided how exactly to word his response. After a moment, he decided on the straight forward approach, "You don't exactly inspire trust."

The guidance counselor pushed his foot off the table then leaned forward to rest his forearms on his legs. He raised an eyebrow curious to Freddie's statement. "Why would you say that?"

"I'm aware of what you did to Tori when you offered her a friendly ear. I've been here more than a month and we've traded _a lot_ of stories."

Lane cleared his throat and raised a curious eyebrow. "What did I do to Tori?"

Freddie tilted his head to the side. "You betrayed her trust when you told her she could talk to you. She apparently forgave you and all is fine between the two of you, but I have had enough people stab me in the back and in the front and I don't want to have to go through that again if I don't have to."

Lane blinked as he tried to think back on what he was talking about.

The former Tech-Producer motioned with a hand, "The detention about her accidentally hitting Jade? You told her she could talk to you freely then you gave her a week's worth of detention and she had to clean up the Black Box that Friday night. I didn't know that guidance counselors could give students detention."

Lane swallowed and rubbed his hands together as he thought back on the incident. A nervous look appeared on his face as he realized the implications of what happened: his job depended on trust and he had already blown it with Freddie before he began.

Freddie shook his head as he looked to the table. "This will never be a friendly conversation, but an interrogation that will always be ammunition to use against me sometime in the future… you are already making stuff up about me on your Slap page."

Lane's jaw dropped slightly open as he thought of any relevant posts he had made on his page.

Freddie supplied the answer, "You said I hit on you at Kenan's party."

"Oh…"

"Yeah, 'Oh'. So you'll lie to Tori and make up stuff about me for whatever strange reason. Imagine what you could do if you actually had true stuff about me. How fast would I expect to see it on-line?"

Lane swallowed and took a deep breath. He answered in calm and direct voice, "I promise you I will never hold anything you say in here against you or post it on-line."

Freddie snorted out, "I'm suppose to accept a promise from a person I know will lie to his students and about me? I went through that at Ridgeway of teachers screwing me over and not giving one damn about what I say. I literally had teachers say to my face no one cares what I think, so no thanks." Freddie stood up from the couch and shook his head then made his way towards the door.

Lane called out, "What does it matter leaving Seattle if you are just going to carry the baggage with you?"

Freddie stopped in his tracks as he was mere feet from the door.

Lane stood up out his chair and stuck his hands in his jean pockets. He continued casually, "You know… starting over includes letting go of old prejudices. That's why you're here in the first place: to start over."

Freddie kept his back towards Lane as he replied in a cold tone, "You don't know why I'm here."

"Maybe not…" Lane replied softly.

The teenager turned his head slightly to continue listening with his right ear, "But the outcome's the same: you uprooted your life Freddie. You didn't move here because of your parents moving or someone dying and having to stay with relatives. You chose to come here for… whatever personal reasons. You left everything behind to start over fresh here, not 'move here but still hang on to all those reasons that caused you to want to leave in the first place'."

The brown eyed teenager stared at the door in front of him as he thought on Lane's words. It took him a minute or so, but he finally replied, "I don't need to hold any prejudice from my past teachers and judge you based off of them. I can judge you by your own actions and you've already failed before we started."

"You're right, but unlike your past teachers, I know what I did was wrong and can admit it."

"Or you're just telling me what you think will help you get me to trust you?"

"They just coincide," the older man answered as he was forced to continue staring at the back of Freddie's head.

After a few moments, Freddie spoke, "What do you expect me to do? Magically start trusting you? Give you a second chance? The last person I accepted an apology from two weeks later nearly killed me… _literally_."

"No, but maybe enough to have some trivial conversations?"

Freddie turned around to stare at the older man. He replied in a guarded tone, "Trivial conversations? I can have those with Cat and they would be far more entertaining then whatever we would discuss."

Lane cracked a smile as he replied with a bit of levity, "You're probably right. She has quite the imagination and… unique perspective."

They stood there unsure what to say next in the awkward silence hanging between them.

Freddie finally took a tired breath then asked, "So what trivial things would you like to talk about?"

"Well, the obvious things that people are probably asking you: how do you like being in a new city… making new friends… new girlfriend—"

Freddie replied in a quick and firm voice, "I'm not talking about my relationship with Jade with you."

Lane nodded and lifted a hand as he replied, "That's fine. I don't mean to pry."

Freddie met him with a stare that showed his annoyance of that was exactly what Lane had attempted to do: pry into his relationship with Jade. He shook his head then walked around the couch and retook his seat.

Lane took that as an obvious sign to retake his own seat in his wicker chair.

Freddie replied with a curt tone as he maintained eye contact with the guidance counselor, "Los Angeles is quite different than Seattle. I do miss my mother, I miss Galini's pie, I miss the Space Needle and Phoenix Jones our local superhero, but Mrs. West has been quite welcoming, I love the Santa Monica Pier on Sunday afternoons and I've had a blast at the Griffith Observatory. I'm dealing."

He nodded along. He'd get back to the topic of his mother and adjusting to living here, but he wanted to touch on something a little more immediate at being at Hollywood Arts. "I'm glad to hear that you're adjusting… have you been making new friends?"

Freddie leaned forward once more and rested his elbows on his thighs and laced his fingers. "I've kept to just the people I know for the time being: Tori, André, Cat, Robbie, Sinjin, Trina… Beck. Tori's been trying to show me the ropes since she was the last one of them to come to the school and even she's still adjusting at times."

"So Tori's been helping you out?" he spoke as more of a comment than a question.

"Yes, Tori is nice, caring and sweet. She's been a real sweetheart to me in making sure I felt welcome, since she already knows what the first questions a newbie like me would have about the school and already have the answers. She can still anticipate my questions that the others just don't realize off hand that I would have."

Lane gave a nervous smile. "How does Jade feel about that? I know she and Tori have their rivalry. I also know that Jade can be quite jealous—"

Freddie snapped, "What part of 'I'm not talking about my relationship with Jade with you' did you not understand?"

The counselor leaned back somewhat in the swinging chair. He replied in a serious tone, "Is there a particular reason you don't want to talk about it?"

Freddie stood up quickly and looked down at the still sitting teacher. "Because it's none of your business!"

Lane blinked at the outburst and watched as Freddie continued and showing his irritation, "Just because I was Freddie "iCarly" Benson, people think they somehow have a right to know about my love life. I should date Sam; I should date Carly; how about everyone just keep their noses out of my love life and let me run my own life?"

"Is trying to get control of your life one of the reasons you're here?"

Freddie took a quick breath.

Lane ran a quick hand over his mouth and chin as he took a breath. "I'm not trying to pry into your life Freddie. I just want to help you and I know that keeping it bottled up is not healthy and will not help you move on with your life… are you talking to someone about it? Are you talking to Jade about it?"

Freddie thought on that for a moment. Since he had moved into the West residence, he had avoided the subject of Carly and Sam and the rest of his life in Seattle to focus exclusively on his life in L.A. He hadn't talked about it with Jade and yesterday afternoon was the closest he had gotten to addressing it before he deflected it … and maybe she let him.

"I have to get to my Directing class. I'm already late as it is," he replied in a tired voice. He turned and headed for the door without waiting for any acknowledgement from Lane.

"Freddie?" the guidance counselor called out as he stood up from his chair.

The former Seattleite stopped at the door for a moment and looked over his shoulder to Lane. "For the record, my sexuality is none of your damn business." Freddie turned and was out the door before Lane could reply.

Lane blew out a breath then whispered to himself, "Well, that went well."

Hollywood Arts  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Thursday, September 8, 2011

After a quick stop by his still undecorated locker, Freddie approached Jade picking something up from her locker before they headed out for the day.

"Hey," he greeted with a warm tone as Mister Allen's class had picked up his spirits after his talk with Lane.

The pale actress turned to him and replied with a soft smile, "Hi." She turned her attention back to the inside of her locker and continued casually, "I'm just grabbing one last thing then we can go."

"Okay," he answered with a boyish grin. He started talking about how Allen's directing class had gone as she finished going through her locker.

Jade glanced back to him as he commented on something about Tori, but her eyes looked over Freddie's left shoulder as she saw something that caught her eye at the other side end of the hallway: a fairly attractive brunette girl was chatting with Beck by his transparent locker and he seemed to be laughing along with whatever he was saying. She slightly frowned at the sight as she started tuning out what Freddie was saying to her. His voice became white noise for a few moments until his next statement sliced through, "I understand if you're a little jealous."

Jade snapped her head to look at Freddie as if she was a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar. A soft blushed formed on her cheeks as she looked away unable to maintain eye contact.

Freddie smiled as he reached to hold her left hand and nodded his head back over his left shoulder. She instinctively squeezed the welcoming contact in her palm. "You still love him and the feelings of possessiveness are still there. I know it can hurt watching him with someone else or trying to at least. I can relate and I know he can relate seeing us together."

She whispered softly, "You're not jealous? At all?"

"Neither of us walked into this blind… but…" he trailed of with a smirk.

"But what?" She squinted slightly as his tone and smirk peaked her curiosity.

He grinned widely as he took a step closer to invade her personal space. "If you want me to be a little jealous, I guess I could arrange that?"

She let out a soft laugh, "Being sweet again?"

"I like being sweet to my mean girl," he answered in a light tone.

She thought his was about to lean in for a kiss, but he hesitated and his expression with his eyes changed slightly as if he thought he was going to do something wrong. She blinked, but brushed away his reaction for the time being. "So you went to see Lane?"

"Yeah, he wanted to see how I was adjusting and getting along." He cocked his head to the side and shrugged a shoulder, "I really don't want to talk to him."

As she closed her locker, she asked curiously, "Why? I know it may be a little bit of a hassle, but Lane's alright."

"I don't trust him," he countered in a flippant tone.

She raised an eyebrow. "You don't trust him?"

Freddie motioned his hand towards her as he answered, "Remember the whole tricking people into thinking Tori really hit you during your stage fighting class?"

"Oh…" she whispered out with a hint of regret.

The whole incident had become somewhat an embarrassment for her in hindsight since her platonic turned romantic relationship with Freddie. He hanging on to the same philosophy as Tori had espoused to her about being nice to those who would be mean to them despite more or less the complete collapse of his old life, struck a nerve about how she treated two similar people in two totally different ways.

Tori had responded by being nice and didn't tell on her about the stage fighting trick was near incomprehensible, weakness on her part and smacked of dangerous naïveté to the dark haired performer. One evening of peace between the girls after slipping out of the Black Box had at best turned Jade's one-sided rivalry into a cold war/hot peace frienemy relationship since in her mind nothing had really been solved with Tori progressively getting all the good roles and the underlining fear of her taking Beck from the pale actress.

Freddie too responded with kindness when Jade had lashed out at him in the janitor's closet after finally breaking down with worry over Beck and the others in Yerba. He held firm to his belief, holding on to his Christian upbringing by his mother in the face of adversity (She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that Freddie had been invited by his aunt to attend a marriage ceremony for her new dogs so that they wouldn't be co-habituating 'in sin') and outright challenging her premise that he had to be mean in return caused her to question those assumptions of naïveté and weakness. He understood mean and vicious people all too well and the word weak would be the last thing she would use to describe him. He had stood up to her, to Steven, to Sam and to the girl that still held a good portion of his love regardless of how much it hurt.

She had fought tooth and nail _with_ Tori, she had fought tooth and nail _for_ Freddie and like him, soon she couldn't live with two contradictory world views and one would have to give.

"I'm not talking about what your part in it, but the fact that even though it was an 'accident' to everyone, Tori still got into trouble. Lane lied to her by saying she could be honest with him without judgment then gave her a week's worth of attention. Why should I trust him?"

Jade licked her lips and glanced away. "Putting it that way, I'm not sure, but… maybe you could humor him for just a bit? Let him feel like he's doing his job?"

"I think I've humored too many people," he answered with a slight shake of his head.

She asked in a hopeful tone, "Would you humor me?"

"Why would you—" Freddie frowned and narrowed his gaze on the pale actress. "You asked him to talk to me?"

Jade raised a hand and scratched her forehead for a moment as she broke eye contact with him. She hesitantly looked up to meet his eyes. "You have avoided talking about anything related to Carly or Sam since you moved in. You've bottled it up—"

Freddie let out an irritated breath. In a sharp tone, Freddie interrupted, "I'm dealing. I'm moving on."

She countered just as forcibly, "You're not moving on, you burying it."

"Of course I'm burying it," he whispered harshly. "It hurts."

She lifted her hand and palmed his left cheek. "I don't want them to keep hurting you. I want you to deal and find some peace with it."

Her touch was soft and tender as it was that night they… The former Tech-Producer looked onto, to him, such soft blue eyes. Ironically, they weren't that different to when Carly want to get him to do something for her, but this time the owner of the eyes wanted him to do something for himself. He let out a breath that took the building tension with it. He whispered softly, "Okay, I'll… I'll talk to him."

"Thank you," she answered in a relieved breath.

He nodded and put his smile back on his face. "So, do you want to stop by Jet Brew and pick up a coffee and smoothie?"

"I would love a smoothie," she answered with a smirk.

Freddie laughed out loud as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders then started walking with her out of the school while she forgot that Beck was at the other end of the hallway.

West Residence  
>Friday, September 9, 2011<p>

Freddie leaned back in his chair at his desk resting his chin in his right hand and elbow on the chair's armrest as he watched the video on the computer monitor.

Carly laughed out, _"And that's it for this episode of iCarly. We hope you enjoyed our back to school celebration episode."_

Sam piped up joining in the laughter, _"I know I'll be enjoying the episode celebrating getting out of school."_

The girls started waving at the camera and shouting their goodbyes, but Freddie didn't wait for whoever they got to do the camera work (his best guess was Brad with some additional help from the AV club except for Shane) to end the show as he clicked stop on the video and commented to himself with a snort, "Damn social promotion is the only reason you'll be getting out."

He hadn't watched the live feed at seven; he had been at work at his part time job he had got just before school started at a local PearStore. They were all too eager to hirer the web-celebrity and work with the high school student's schedule, especially since he could actually do the job. Tonight's episode had actually been the first one he seen all the way through since the girls had started the show back up in late August after Carly came back from her 'exile' from her uncle and cousins.

It wasn't particularly bad as an episode, but it wasn't particularly good either. He just felt it was missing something. His mind supplied the answering in a joking tone, _"It's missing you, you dummy."_ He shook his head to dispel that thought for a moment as he thought on the rest of the show.

Rather it was Brad or someone else from the AV club he thought that they did a pretty good job with the camera work. He hoped that they were getting more appreciation than he had when it was his job to capture the girls well in their performances.

Gibby appeared to be as excited as ever as he appeared surprisingly in the majority of them.

Sam was still energetic and had her comedic timing. Her hair and the new make up job were pretty good. He couldn't see any evident spots of missing hair from when Jade had torn some of her hair out in their fight. In regards to the make up, Sam was never into heavy make up, but apparently she decided to start wearing some in an attempt to cover up the nasty scar he knew was on her left cheek across her cheekbone. Jade's silver claw ring turned out to have cut Sam pretty deep when the pale actress punched her and left a nasty scar in its wake. The blonde had inflicted plenty of internal scars on him, so the irony was not lost on him that she now wore a physical scar for what she had done to him.

Then there was Carly… she had decided to change up a little with a hair cut to give her bangs. He didn't particularly like the change and guessed he was in the minority in thinking they didn't looked all that good on her, but the bangs did draw his attention to her soft brown eyes. There was something about her eyes that troubled him that he noticed as soon as she started the show. He couldn't place exactly what was that something. It wasn't exactly sadness, but he knew she wasn't entirely happy despite how much she laughed on the show.

"_Regret?"_ a voice in his head suggested.

Freddie sighed loudly as he really didn't want to think on it anymore as it was starting to give him a headache. He'd decide to do something a little more productive and get to something done he had put off for the last few days before heading to bed. He already had his small camera that he had used for the impromptu iCarly episode to bust Steven set up on a mini-tripod on his desk, so he decided to pull up the program on his computer to start recording.

He turned the chair slightly to look at the camera as it started recording. He picked up his phone sitting on the desk to check the time. He looked back at the camera as he sat the phone back down on the desk and began, "It is Friday, September ninth at eleven twenty-seven and I decided that I need to do my profile video for theSlap. It's the website for the students at Hollywood Arts High School in Los Angeles, which I am now a very proud attendee. Okay, some of you know me as Freddie Benson, the guy from iCarly, but I'll tell you some things about me that you probably already know or maybe not know… I'm originally from Seattle. I just moved down to L.A. this August after being in this great summer workshop about filmmaking at Hollywood Arts. I'm looking forward to learning more about camera work and maybe expanding a little into acting and writing. I also like fencing; regretfully I can't get enough practice time in anymore. It's a family tradition. I like Galaxy Wars, World of Warlords and my girlfriend has recently got me hooked on the Gears of Wars series. I still think she's going easy on me when we play."

Freddie rolled his eyes to the ceiling and let out a breath. "Ah… what else?" He looked back to the camera and continued, "Let's just cut to the chase: I know what you're asking for weeks: 'Why did I quit iCarly?' and 'Why am I in L.A.?' Well…" Freddie sighed and shook his head, taking his eyes off the camera. He looked back to the camera with a resigned expression and finished, "I could tell you all the messy details, because there are _plenty_," he emphasized with a roll of his eyes, "but when it comes down to it, I just wanted to be happy and I couldn't be happy in Seattle anymore, so I'm in L.A. That's all I'm going to say on the matter. So… bye."

He then clicked the button to end the recording.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed these opening chapters to the story. It will be a long journey for Freddie and Jade and not just in the love department. I'm going to try for my usual Friday updates for this story. Don't be shy in letting me know what you think.<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Hello my dear readers. I have for you an early Christmas Present since I might be too busy to post this on Friday, you know, the day before Christmas Eve. Thank you to all those that have stuck with me since the last story and continue to read and review this story. Also, I want to remind everyone of a language warning.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 3<p>

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Saturday, September 10, 2011

It was approaching nine at night as Freddie wore a big grin and entered Jade's room after just getting in from Tori's house. After working a few hours in the late morning and early afternoon, he went over to Tori's place to finish writing and editing the script to their play. It took longer than either of they thought as they fought over the idea of changing the sister's lines to all alien words, so he decided to stay to eat and debate it out.

Freddie surprisingly left one girl typing on her laptop to find Jade typing away at her own laptop. She had been revising the script to her own play/short film she had been working on for the last two weeks. She had apparently taken his suggestion to heart about starting to create her own opportunities to perform on a regular basis and not depend on Hollywood Arts' productions or just do something occasionally like her play _Well Wishes_ or her performance art. The new approach may have also been a subconscious way of beating Tori by not competing against her.

The pale scriptwriter wasn't alone at her task as Cat was sitting cross-legged on Jade's bed sowing on the actress' intended costume and putting what she had learned from her costuming class to good use. The dress looked like something from the Renaissance, but mix with some Gothic style. He found her idea behind the performance a little dark and disturbing, but he was far from blind in seeing that her outlook on things were quite the contrast to his more 'normal' and 'light-ful' outlook.

The former Seattleite greeted the redhead warmly as he made his way over to Jade's side, "Hey Cat."

"Hi," the redhead answered with a wave then went back to her hand stitching.

"Productive night?" the dark brunette asked with a guarded tone, but did not take her eyes off the laptop screen.

He let out a happy sigh and sat on the edge of the wide seat of her burgundy chair to look over her right shoulder and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Yes, we wrapped up the final draft and we're going to start casting on Monday afternoon then rehearsals on Tuesday. We should be ready to put it on Friday afternoon."

She glanced up at him with a raised eyebrow. Her tone indicated her evident surprise, "Just a week to get ready?"

He softly laughed and answered in a care free manner, "We had that long to get iCarly performances ready on top of them being what we did on our own time and Sam lackluster help. This is actually class work and we have more than just me and Tori and everyone is going to give it their all, so I don't see it as a problem."

In a reluctant tone, she voiced, "Okay, as long as you're sure."

He gave her a soft kiss on the cheek then replied, "Thanks for the concern. So, how can I help you two lovely ladies?"

She finally put on a smile caused by the sign of affection. "Well… you could tell me what you think about my latest changes," she answered motioning her head towards the computer screen.

"I'd love to," speaking with a soft tone then started reading her alterations of her script over her shoulder as she scooted closer to him to rest the her temple against his cheek. _Trust Jade to make a Brothers Grimm story grimmer._

Guidance Counselor's Office  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Freddie let out a loud breath as a sign of and a way to push out his irritation as he leaned back in the worn leather couch. He looked to the guidance counselor relaxing in his wicker netted chair.

Lane propped his foot against the center table and rested his right arm forearm across his knee as he returned with a casual gaze.

The teenager was the first to speak, "I'm here because Jade asked me to be here."

The counselor gave a slight nod of his head as he asked, "So she told you that she asked me to talk to you?"

Freddie tilted his head slightly to the side as he watched the school employee. He replied in a somewhat dry tone, "Yes, after I told her I really didn't want to keep talking to you, but she thought I should."

"You still have your concerns about talking to me?"

Freddie cracked a smile. "What? You thought they could vanish over the weekend?"

Lane broke into a small smile and shook his head. "No, but maybe a little relaxation in your position."

"I'm _here_. That should be enough for you for the time being."

Lane nodded along. "Okay, so you're trusting Jade?"

Freddie's mouth became a thin line as the stared at Lane. "Not talking about my relationship with Jade. Move on to something else."

Lane nodded along and if Freddie offered, he was going to take the opportunity… "I saw your Slap profile video."

The brown eyed teenager shook his head slightly and sighed, "I was tired and I was honest. What's the problem?"

Lane shrugged a shoulder and expressed with a half a smile. "I didn't say there was one. I was just curious."

The teenager frowned and closed his eyes for a moment. He took a deep breath and released it slowly as he met the guidance counselor's eyes. "Everyone is curious, but that doesn't mean they get to know what happened."

Lane attempted to ask with an innocent tone, "Is there a particular reason why you don't want to tell people?"

Freddie tilted his head slightly to the side and raised an eyebrow. "Beside the fact it isn't any of their business?"

Lane cleared his throat and motioned along with his hand. "Perhaps, but a lot of your fans, including a number of students here, grew up with you on the show. I mean, how old were you when you started iCarly?"

Freddie leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "I was thirteen."

"And you're seventeen now. There were a lot of fans that started watching at your age and are still watching now. They've been loyal—"

"So I owe them?" Freddie asked with a hint of disgust in his voice.

Lane raised a hand. "I'm saying that you can't assume all want to know out for some juicy gossip, but some are obviously concerned about what has happened. You left the show; you left the city."

"And there are plenty who only care that I won't get with Sam or Carly. Oh, how easily they turned on me. They've let me know loud and clear their feelings with comments on my Slap page over the weekend after I confirmed I have a girlfriend. 'I was really never your fan', 'You wouldn't be anything without them', 'You're a two face prick', 'Your girlfriend's a whore', I could go on. I had to set my page not to accept comments anymore and deleted the rest. I don't owe them chizz after that," he finished thoroughly disgusted about the matter.

He tried to offer a sympathetic smile and a calmed response, "Freddie, you can't judge everyone by a few comments by a few people."

"Maybe I don't care to make the distinction?"

"So you're going to listen to the vocal minority? Maybe if you told everyone the truth they would be more understanding? Let your real fans knock the legs out from under them?"

"I've been bullied enough in my life Lane; I'm not going to be bullied by some guy that lives in his mother's basement and shouts Seddie all the time. On the remote chance that I did, they wouldn't believe me and I just might have a little respect left for Carly. I don't necessarily want to embarrass and hurt her."

"So staying in L.A. was about Carly?"

Freddie slightly frowned. "She was one of the many reasons why L.A. was preferable to staying in Seattle."

"So you're going to be vague with me as well?"

"Like I said, I don't know what you'll turn around and put on-line."

"Do you think Jade would let me get away with that?"

Freddie thought for a moment as the guidance counselor gave him a challenging gaze.

"Okay, you don't want to talk about that… I hear that you and Tori are going to have your first play on Friday."

The brown eye teenager dropped his guard and put a smile on, which Lane took as a good sign, as he answered, "Yeah, we're looking forward to it. Tori's really excited about it, but I'm a little concern she's over stressing. I'm trying to get her to realize that she doesn't have to worry."

"Sharing your experience?"

He nodded back friendly as he broke eye contact for a moment. "Yeah, you just have to remember that you know what you're doing and that it will work out. Four years of web-casting taught me that."

"Other than trying to keep Tori from stressing, how does it feel putting on your first show?"

The brown eyed teenager let out a soft laugh. "It actually feels pretty good… one of those good things you said that I shouldn't let go of."

"I'm glad to hear. So you're getting the chance to spend some time with your classmates. I guess you're having to spend a lot of time with Tori? Other than her being the second newest student in your group I mean."

Freddie shrugged his shoulder. "We're in the same class and we partnered up to do a play, so I spent a good part of Saturday and yesterday afternoon getting things ready for the play. It's going to be the same for the rest of the week."

"Do you like spending that much time with her so far?"

The corner of the former Tech-Producer's mouth lifted up and he raised an eyebrow from the question. "Does it matter? Like I said, we're I the same class together and working on the same play; it's kind of necessary."

"Is that the only reason?"

Freddie shook his head and pushed his tongue to the inside of his bottom lip. He looked up and stared coldly at Lane's eyes as he asked, "Are you asking if I'm attracted to Tori?"

Lane motioned with his right hand as that arm still rested on his knee. "You share a similar outlook on life and outward happy and friendly disposition. You seem compatible."

Freddie brushed his hand over his mouth and chin then directed a look that displayed his annoyance at Lane's line of thought. "So this is your end run around trying to get me to talk about my relationship? You want me prove I don't have a thing for Tori by telling you what my feelings are for Jade."

Lane slightly frowned and gave a slight nod of his head before speaking in a more authoritarian voice, "You may not want to talk about your relationship, but there are things you have to consider might affect it, such as having to spending so much time with Tori. You have to know how Jade feels about Tori. You can't be blind to that."

Freddie stared back at Lane and replied just as forcibly, "I'm not going to play Lane. You're just coming at me from a different angle. The topic of Jade and our relationship is not open for discussion."

Lane let out a breath and leaned back into his chair causing it to slightly swing before his foot on the table stabilized him. "So you're really just here to humor Jade? You're just going to sit there and evade me?"

Freddie cocked his head to the side and whispered out with a hint of annoyance in his voice, "That's not why I'm here and all three of us know it."

"But you don't want to talk about that either."

Freddie shook his head and asked in an apparently genuinely curious tone, "What's there to talk about? They were my friends and now they're not."

"Why? Why would be a very good question to talk about," Lane reiterated.

"The better question is why should I tell you?"

Lane answered with a hopeful tone, "So I can help you. I can't help you if you won't tell me what happened."

Freddie lowered his head and stared at the wooden table.

The guidance counselor slightly swung back and forth in his chair as he continued to brace his foot against the table. He could almost see the gears turning in the teenager's head as he debated with himself on what he should say and how much to say. Freddie spoke up a few seconds later in a tired and distant voice, "What happened was that I realized that I was a second thought to the girl I love… loved, love, whatever and that I was always going to be a second thought to her… _'Who cares?'_ She certainly didn't," he finished with a snort of his breath. He quickly stood up from his seat to Lane's apparent surprise on his face.

"I need to get to class," the teenager stated casually then headed out the door.

Lane didn't even attempt to stop the teenager from leaving. He just let out a breath realizing this was going to be one of his harder cases… maybe even harder than helping Cat some of her problems last year and if he was truly honest with himself, she was still a mess even more so now with her slipping into becoming more childlike. These were the times he wish he really did become a Guy Dance Counselor.

Black Box Theater  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Thursday, September 15, 2011<p>

Freddie watched from the catwalk Robbie, André and Trina finish up a rehearsal for a scene for Tori and his first one act play for Mister Allen's class and for the school. Freddie was too far away to hear the lines (that was Tori's job as she sat in the front row of chairs) as he was redundantly double checking Sinjin and his crew's jobs of making sure all the technical aspects were working as expect so the play would happen without a hitch as Tori watched over the rehearsal. Sinjin and his crew knew what they were doing and had done so for plenty of other productions long before Freddie showed up to attend Hollywood Arts, but he still felt the need to double check them for some unfathomable reason at the moment. He guessed it was probably to reassure his frayed nerves of this being his first major project and old habits dying hard from being a Tech-Producer.

He watched as Robbie's and André's characters were getting into some argument on the set of a typical middle-class kitchen. Robbie threw André out then turned to Trina sitting at a small, round kitchen table pretending that she was eating a banana with the peal still on it. However, Trina stopped in the middle of the scene to make a phone call and Tori shouting loud enough for Freddie to hear that they were taking a five minute break.

Tori argued with her sister for a few moments then started talking with André and Robbie down on the set as he helped Sinjin and the redheaded member of his crew double check some of the wire connections to the sound and lighting equipment. Sinjin wasn't particularly happy with the connections and decided to head down to the first floor to get the ones he was happy with using and Freddie decided to follow him down to the first floor.

Freddie with clipboard in hand reached the first floor and approached the stage as Sinjin finished some exchange with Trina that Freddie didn't pay too much attention (foot bleaching?). He did catch the start of conversation that apparently Trina and Rex were sharing when Robbie approached the older teenager with puppet in hand.

"Hey Trina," Rex greeted the comedic actress with a pleasant tone.

"What?" Trina snapped her question as she was apparently annoyed with having to speak with the puppet.

"Do you want to know my two favorite things about you?" the Rex asked smoothly then softly laughed.

Trina's jaw dropped, apparently offended by the question then swung her left fist and slugged Rex, crashing him into Robbie's face.

Robbie shouted as he sat Rex back up in his hands, "Trina!"

Rex moved his head in an exaggerated motion as he shouted, "You don't know what I was going to say!"

"Shut it puppet!" she shouted back with her outrage clearly on her face.

Trina walked past Robbie and gave her sister a curious look as she asked in a surprisingly calming voice, "Ah… so listen, about your script. Why did you change all my lines to alien words?"

"Ah… it was Freddie's suggestion," Tori laughed as she waved a hand towards Freddie apparently realizing he was standing behind Trina as he was looking over something on his clipboard.

Freddie lifted his head from the clipboard and wore a surprise look on his face. He asked quickly, "It was what?"

Tori's mouth became a thin line and she widened her stare at him with a slight nod of her head in the hopes that he would play along. "He thought that you were such an amazing actress that he wanted to give you something that would challenge you and push you to the next level of your ability and really knock people socks off." She then looked to Freddie and nodded her head with a forced smile.

"Right… challenge you," Freddie replied with a fake grin and a nod of his head.

Trina grinned and complimented happily as she patted him on the shoulder, "Ah, you're so sweet Freddie."

Freddie chuckled out and nodded, "Yes, sweet…"

"Well, I'm going to get something to drink and be right back," Trina replied then quickly walked past them and headed out of the theater to presumably get a drink from one of the soda machines.

Freddie glanced as she exited then looked back to Tori. Freddie pointed to his chest and looked to Tori in shocked, "_I_ came up with it?"

Tori palmed her forehead then slightly whined, "Sorry, but she's just—"

"That bad?"

The brunette dropped her hand and shook her head as she let out a sigh, "Yes."

Freddie nodded along as he asked, "Then again, why are you having her to play the lead?"

"I didn't want to. You know my Cuddle-Me-Cathy doll that I love and I've had since I was five years old?"

Freddie blinked and he slightly frowned to show that he had no idea what she was talking about, "You've never mentioned that to me."

"Oh," she commented a little embarrassed. "Well Trina kidnapped her and wouldn't give her back unless I gave her the lead."

Freddie gave a slight nod of his head towards the brunette. "So you're risking our first production grade by casting Trina in the part because of your Cathy doll?"

"I love that doll!"

Freddie snorted out a laugh, "Yeah and I'd love to make a good grade on my first big project here. You've been here for more than a year and you're an established student here. I'd like to get some credibility too."

Tori motioned to him with both her hands. "You're Freddie Benson; you already have credibility," Tori replied casually as if it wasn't any big deal.

"Yeah, but… I just can't rest on that. I don't want people to think I'm here only on name recognition."

"But it's earned recognition," she encouraged with a bashful smile debating in her head whether that was the best thing to say.

Freddie tilted his head to the side and sighed out, "Maybe, but other than some wild fangirls, most people give credit to Carly and Sam for the show and don't really think about my contribution."

"Freddie, trust me when I say this: _People realize it_. I've seen the show since you left. It's not as good and people know it. They're just getting by with whoever they are getting to help them. They keep the view count up for their show and it shows it's down since you left."

The brown haired teenager snorted out a laugh, "That's more the fact that people know I'm not going to get with either one of them, so they don't see the point in watching it. There were plenty of viewers that didn't watch it just for the comedy, but to see which pairing would happen."

"Maybe, but it's going to be fine." She picked at his rolled up sleeve. "I mean I got you and you're you, and we've got André and Robbie."

He was forced to nod along because he really didn't disagree with her logic. "Yeah… but it looks like to me that you're trying to convince yourself more than me."

Tori let out a breath. "I might be, you know… with having to use Trina."

Freddie sat the clipboard still in his hands to a neighboring chair then clapped his hands together just under his mouth and suggested, "Look, why don't you just tell your parents about Trina stealing your doll then we can cast someone who can actually act out the part?"

Tori sighed and looked to the ceiling for a moment. "That won't work," she huffed out.

"Your parents love you more than Trina; yes it will work," he replied confidently.

"They don't love me more than her!"

Freddie tilted his head to the side and gave her a look questioning her seriousness.

Tori shook her head and grumbled before turning and walking off.

He called out with a laugh, "We should have cast Cat. She could have done the role in her sleep."

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Thursday, September 15, 2011

The clock hanging on the wall to Freddie's right softly ticked as it displayed the time approaching eight in the evening. He was rinsing off another plate before placing it in one of the trays in the dishwasher as it was his turn to do the dishes after dinner.

Jade's voice called out behind him in an almost accusatorial voice, "Did your first production have to be with her?"

Freddie glanced over his shoulder to meet the pale teenager's blue eyes. They seemed closed off with her slight frown and crossed arms. He shrugged that shoulder then looked back down at the next dish he was wiping off and replied with a soft smile, "I don't know. Maybe I should have gone with someone with more experience, but I know and trust Tori and that's not easy for me to do right now with people."

Jade rolled her eyes and sighed, "I know, but I don't like it."

Freddie placed the next plate into the dishwasher then quickly washed his hands. He shook his hands over the sink to get excess water off after rinsing them then reached for a dishrag to dry his hands. He turned around and leaned back against the kitchen sink as he dried his hands. He knew it was a rhetorical question, especially with his conversation with Lane two days ago, but he asked it anyway, "What don't you like about it?"

The dark brunette rolled her eyes towards the ceiling for a brief moment then looked down the floor.

He laughed as he threw the dishrag on the counter to his right then took a step forward and rested his hands on her hips. He whispered playfully, "I should be so upset that you are jealous, but… I am so flattered, so I'll forgive you this time." He swooped in for a quick peck on her lips. He pulled away just enough to rest his forehead on her forehead and whisper, "I think you are actually getting possessive of me Jade West."

She snorted out a laugh as she closed her eyes. She whispered softly, "I'm working on it, but yeah, I just might be." She then titled her chin upward and caught his lips in a soft kiss as she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck. He slipped his hands around to the small of her back.

He kissed her only a few times until he pulled away and reached up to his neck to take one of her hands. He smiled at her as she raised an eyebrow in curiosity. He gently pulled her along to follow him to his room.

* * *

><p>The pair laid on Freddie's bed as he stared up at the ceiling while Jade rested her head on his chest where her right ear lay over his heart as his hand rested on the small of her back. Resting peacefully with one another was all they had done since he led her to his bed. Freddie had surprisingly learned over the last few weeks of being with Jade that she liked cuddling and that he became a fan of the practice. He being a fan of that type of affection didn't surprise him as for that brief time he was with Carly, he had enjoyed spending that kind of time with her even without the full use of his right hand.<p>

However, that wasn't the real reason he had led her here for some privacy. He knew he was about to use a dangerous tactic in addressing her feelings, but he had learned over the last month that sometimes the brutal, honest truth and not the tactful approach was sometimes necessary. "Tori is very pretty and kind. She's has that girl next door thing going for her and any guy would have to be a fool not to consider her. She shares some of Carly's qualities that I fell for, but I haven't seen any of the negatives yet. She's just nice and calm and without any drama. She's the other half of a nice girl/nice guy storybook couple."

The dark brunette immediately frowned at hearing his praise for her rival. He was practically admitting that he still considered the performer as a viable love interest to her ears. She was about to lift her head and say something, but he continued on, "There's Cat. She is cute and very sweet and innocently playful. She has that childlike innocence and wonder that will make you forget about all the bad chizz in the world." Freddie chuckled, "And what a set of legs she has? I still think she does that on purpose with her Daisy Dukes she's so fond of wearing."

Jade's frowned deepened and bit her tongue to continue listening as her blood pressure went up.

Freddie cracked a smile and snorted out a breath. "Trina… oh Trina is hot with a capital H. I don't understand why she doesn't have guys beating down the door to date her. I mean, she's not _that_ obnoxious. One would think she would have to constantly deal with guys that just wanted to get in a physical relationship with her. The curves on her…" He whistled for a moment.

The pale actress was about to speak to asking him what point he was trying to make other than trying to purposely make her jealous and hurt her, but he dropped his voice to a soft whisper now, "Then there's Jade West. She has the beauty and the voice of an angel… maybe she really is an angel the Lord meant me to find to rescue me out of Hell." Freddie snorted out a breath though his nose that tickled her forehead as he continued staring at the ceiling. She remained silent at his moving on to her as the subject and the use of speaking to her in third person completely bewildered her as to the reason why he was speaking in that manner. "I shouldn't be too surprise if that turned out to be the case… but people, people just see her as just mean, but they are blind. They don't see what I see and maybe she doesn't see it either: that underneath it she can be a sweet and kind and a loving person and not lose one bit of strength. I truly pity those people… I wish she saw what I saw, because then she'd understand why it's her instead of any of them and she wouldn't be afraid… I don't want her to be as afraid as I am."

She felt a surge of feeling humbled by his confession of what he thought of her, but mixed with a sense of confusion about him being afraid. _What could he be afraid of?_ Her stray thought was displaced for a moment as she felt him tense up and she instinctively tightened her hold on him as she snuggled her head in the crook of his neck.

"There are plenty of guys that that want to get with her and she could probably do better with any of them and not have to deal with all my baggage… There's André, a stand up and honorable guy with the heart of a poet and they could make magic together with his songwriting and her voice."

Jade cracked a brief smile at the humorous thought of a relationship with André. The smile didn't last long as the brown hair teenager continued in a tired, almost defeated voice, "Then there's Beck Oliver… the super hot and super cool guy that all the girls want and guys want to be like… the man she's still in love with… how do you compete with that?"

She realized that they had just circled back to both their initial fears of getting together the day they got together of competing against others for the other person's feelings. In Jade's effort to not to be the jealous type anymore as she remembered that factor of many that had cost her dearly, she had moved from her concern of Carly to other girls in general. He had done the same, but not to the same extent as he didn't forget about Beck in the background. They were still in that hole, but maybe they were crawling out of it.

She lifted her head off of his chest and looked down to meet his eyes.

He looked back at her with a small, soft smile. "I don't know how to take away your fear Jade. I wish I could. I don't know what I can say or do other than let you know that I won't let my fear of other guys rule my decisions and I hope that I can be the man that measures up one day for you to never have those fears and doubts."

Her left hand shot up and cupped his cheek as she leaned forward and down for their lips to meet. He kissed back as tenderly as this wasn't a kiss of passion, but one of affection. She pulled away a few moments later as the traded a few kisses back and rested her head back on his chest. She whispered, "You're not the one that needs to measure up… please believe me on that… it's just… we're still a mess aren't we?"

He kissed the top of her forehead and kept a small smile on his face. "Maybe, but at least we're in it together."

She closed her eyes and snuggled back to get comfortable in her boyfriend's arms to relish in the peace they always seemed to bring her. "Freddie?"

"Yeah?"

Her voice was soft and seemed to caress him as surely as a touch from her fingertips or lips, "I, you."

The corner of his mouth lifted threatening to break his expression into a full blown smile. "I, you too. I, you too."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Well, I hope you enjoy that chapter. I want to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a Happy Kwanzaa. See you next Friday, maybe even sooner depending on how busy I get.<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Merry Christmas! I had a chance during this wonderful day, so I thought I'd give you a present of an extra long chapter. Merry Christmas once again and I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

Chapter 4

Black Box Theater  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Friday, September 16, 2011<p>

André, Robbie and Trina were on stage in the quaint little ranch house kitchen set performing a scene from Tori and Freddie's play. The two guys were arguing about Trina's character being a little weird and Robbie's character was getting quite upset about it.

Tori and Freddie were seated in the first row of the partitioned seats for the audience. Tori was seated on the right side of the partitioned seats with Mister Allen on her right with his notepad out to take notes on the performance while Freddie was seated to the brunette's left in the other half of the seats with Lane sitting to his left. Jade and Cat with Rex sitting in the redhead's lap and holding a small bag of popcorn, were sitting together behind Tori and Mister Allen.

"Liking it so far?" Tori whispered over to Mister Allen as he jotted down a note. He passed her a glance then continued watching the performance.

"Your sister is a freaky weirdo," André answered Robbie's character's challenge.

"I can't believe you said that," Robbie's character shouted in outrage.

"But you just told me—"

"Get out of here! Get out of my ranch house!"

André's character was arguing the entire time as Robbie's character was almost shoving him out. Once the other actor was out the door, Robbie's character shouted, "You got your wish." He then turned to Trina pretending to eat the banana.

He dropped in a seat cattycorner to her and spoke in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry Mandy. I though he was my friend, but anyone who would call my adopted sister a weirdo is no friend of mine."

Trina spoke in her alien gibberish and motioned erratically with her hands.

Robbie slammed a palm on the kitchen table and answered desperately, "Mandy, you know I can't understand you, not with your speech impediment."

Freddie leaned over slightly and whispered to Tori, "I thought we cut that line about the speech impediment? I told you it was offensive."

Tori slightly shook her head then looked back at the performance.

Trina started speaking in alien gibberish.

"You're hungry? You're frightened? You're sticky? You're Canadian? You like my pants? I don't understand!" he finished with a shout and stood up from the table in disgust. He walked over to the range and leaned forwards against it.

Trina got up and motioned for Robbie to step towards her as she spoke more of the alien tongue.

"You want me to come closer?"

She grabbed him by the head and pushed him so that their temples touched.

"Mandy wait!" Robbie shouted then groaned from the contact, "I can hear your thoughts."

Freddie covered his mouth with a hand as he watched Robbie and Trina share thoughts.

Jade leaned forward to whisper over Tori's shoulder. "Tori?"

"Yeah?" the brunette replied with a glance over her shoulder.

"This was entirely your idea, right?"

Tori grinned and asked eagerly, "Yeah, you like it?"

"Freddie's part," Jade whispered then looked to her cup of coffee and took a sip.

Tori frowned and looked back to the performance.

Robbie's character asked with expected disbelief, "You're not from this earth. You're from another planet?"

He pushed away and shouted, "I don't believe you. If you were an alien, why would you pretend to be my sister in this simple ranch house?"

She spoke again in her alien language in a desperate attempt to somehow get him to understand.

"Okay, prove it," he challenged.

Tori whispered to Mister Allen, "Are you ready for this? Yeah, get excited."

The next moment Trina started lifting into the air.

Cat commented as she continued to hold Rex in her lap, "How did she get her feet so white?"

"God Mandy, you are an alien!" Robbie's character shouted flabbergasted at what he was seeing.

Trina started swaying back and forth to the excitement of the audience.

"Oh my gosh, how come you never told me—" Robbie began, but stopped as the right line of the harness snapped and Trina fell to one side with a hard jerk. She screamed from the jolt then started swinging wildly trying to grab on to anything she could to stop her swinging.

Tori shouted as she ran to the side of the set to help with the line controls. "Get her down! Stop the play!"

"Well, I guess someone should get this on video," Jade commented as she held up her phone and started recording Trina's swinging and trashing of the set.

Trina continued to swing all around the set knocking over anything in her way. Freddie was already on his feet trying to grab Trina as she passed, but missed her each time as now she was going around in a wide circle.

"Grab the light thingy!" Tori shouted in a desperate attempt to offer some advice to stop Trina's wild swinging.

"That poor ranch house," Cat commented regretfully.

Trina finally grabbed the overhead light, but that did not stop her momentum. After the next few moments, the other line finally snapped and Trina fell down on the kitchen table and through it.

There was a collective groan from the audience.

Trina groaned as she lifted her head up from the trashed floor.

As Cat continued to cover her eyes with a hand, she asked, "Please tell me it's over?"

Freddie was about to dash to her side, but the left side of the stage's wall gave way and fell over on top of Trina.

Jade replied dryly to Cat as she was putting away her phone, "It's over."

"Get this wall off of me!" Trina shouted from underneath the collapsed wall.

"Come on, help me!" Tori shouted as she and everyone around immediately rushed the fallen set wall to lift it off of Trina.

Guidance Councilor's Office  
>Hollywood Arts<br>Friday, September 16, 2011

It was about a half an hour later after Trina's accident on stage that the Hollywood Art students were waiting in Lane's office. Jade was sitting in Lane's wicker webbed hanging chair with her legs propped up on the table in the center of the office and glancing at her phone. Cat was sitting to her left sitting in the worn brown leather chair and playing with her pink little piglet doll with the brown mustache. Robbie was sitting cross-legged with Rex on his right side and lap on top of a short cabinet beside Lane's desk. Tori and Freddie were sitting together on the matching worn couch to the chair Cat was sitting and across from Jade. André was pacing around the room looking at his phone occasionally.

Tori whispered out regretfully as she wrung her hands, "Poor Trina, I just don't understand what went wrong."

Cat spoke up to explain with a smile, "Don't worry, one time my brother was in Vegas and he fell out of a fourth story hotel window and landed on the roof of a shuttle bus."

"And he was okay?" she asked in confusion and a slight motion of her hands towards the redhead.

She lost the smile as she answered softly, "No."

The brunette asked hesitantly, "Well, but he's okay now?"

"No… he's seriously messed up," the red velvet haired teenager replied as she looked off to nowhere in particular. Cat turned her attention back to the stuffed pig and tapped her noise with the animal's nose.

"Come on, come on, I got to get out of here. I'm suppose to meet Keeko after school," André complained as he paced around the room.

"Keeko?" Tori asked curiously. She had never heard André mention her before and for some reason that bothered her for a moment as her usually let her know somehow he was seeing someone.

"Yeah, she's this girl I met at BF Wangs. She's all exotic and Polynesian; I got to get out of here!" André complained as his impatience was evident on his face and his pacing about.

Cat pointed to herself and spoke up, "I love BF Wangs. Have you guys tried their bang-bang noodles?"

No one replied after a moment, so she asked, "No?"

Freddie sighed and shook his head. He looked to André and stood up. "You're right." He looked to Tori. "Trina is obviously fine or we would be with her and not just sitting here for no apparent reason. Since she's fine, I need to go too."

André nodded in agreement then the pair started heading out the door with André calling out, "Bye."

"Lane said we can't leave," Robbie spoke up.

Freddie turned slightly to his right as to look to Robbie. He replied in a curt tone, "Lane doesn't pay my rent. I need to get to work. If Trina was in the hospital it would be a different story, but since she's not, bye."

Tori raised her head and looked over her shoulder to give Freddie a perplex look as she asked, "You pay her rent?"

Freddie dropped his annoyed stance and replied curiously, "Yes."

She turned back and looked to Jade to ask, "You make him pay rent?"

Jade looked up from her phone and was about to reply when Freddie continued, "I'm not shacking up with her if that's what you think. I'm not a freeloader. I rent the room from her mother."

"Oh, ah… okay. Sorry, I didn't mean to imply anything," she backtracked and raised her hands up defensively.

Freddie shook his head and snorted out a breath.

The sound playing from her phone caught Jade's attention. She snorted out a laugh as she looked at her PearPhone in her hands.

Cat asked curiously, "What's so funny?"

Tori's brow furled as she looked to the pale teenager. She asked in surprise, "Are you laughing at that video of Trina getting hurt?"

Jade kept her eyes on her phone and replied, "No, I'm laughing at the comments."

Tori's jaw dropped open for a moment then asked in shock, "You posted it online?"

The dark brunette chuckled, "A little bit," then grinned as she looked down at her phone.

Freddie palmed his forehead and let out a sigh. However, before he could say anything to Jade, Lane entered the office and Tori immediately asked, "How's Trina?"

André asked quickly, "Is she alright?"

Cat extended her right hand as she held her piglet stuffed animal with the brown mustache in her other hand. "How's the ranch house?"

Lane gave her a confused look then replied to the rest of them, "Trina's banged up but she's going to be fine. Nothing serious."

"Oh, thank God," Tori let out a breath and collapsed down onto the couch.

"Yep, bye," André shouted as he made his way to the door.

"No, no, no, sit down," Lane instructed the songsmith.

"Why?" André whined out then took a seat on an armrest of the couch as Freddie walked around back and had a seat beside Tori.

Jade asked in a tone that showed her annoyance at having to wait, "Yeah, why do we have to be here?"

Lane motioned with his hands towards them and answered, "Because, you're all suspects."

Rex complained, "Oh no, not again."

Tori asked curiously, "Suspects?"

André blinked and asked with a bewildered tone, "For what happened to Trina?"

Lane nodded and verbalized, "Uh huh."

Cat gave a slight frown as she replied, "But that was an accident."

Jade softly laughed and glanced at her phone halfway through her statement, "Yep, a terrible, hilarious accident that already has seventeen hundred views."

Lane looked down at the dark brunette and motioned a hand towards her as he admonished, "Posting videos of people's tragedies are just mean and wrong."

"Yeah, no, thanks," she glanced up at him and finished, "I really appreciate your input on that."

Lane slightly shook his head then looked across to the rest of them. "And what happened to Trina wasn't an accident."

They all looked to one another in confusion.

Lane pulled out from his back jean pocked and held up a broken gold and silver gimbal. "This is the gimbal that connected Trina's harness to the steel wires that made her fly."

André stood up and started speaking, "Hey listen I would love to hang, but met this girl named Keeko at BF Wangs and I—"

"Hey!" Lane pointed to the couch and André retook a seat on the armrest of the couch beside Tori.

Lane pointed to the gimbal in his hand and continued, "See this, someone cut a notch here and that is what made Trina fall."

They looked to one another for a brief moment before Robbie spoke up, "So you are saying that it was—"

Rex responded in surprise, "Sabotage?"

Lane motioned with his hands towards the gathered students, "Yeah and according to Trina, every one of you were with her at some point just before the show."

André stood up from the armrest and started firmly and with a hint of annoyance, "Man, who ever did it, you better step up." André whined and pointed to his phone as he continued, "I want to go play with Keeko."

Tori answered with a mix of surprise and disbelief, "Oh come on, no one here would do that to Trina—"

"Sam?" Freddie called out.

They all looked to him with various expressions: Cat with her completely confused and childlike gaze, Jade with her look of concern at the mention of the blonde's name and André perplexed.

Tori blinked and raised an eyebrow then asked slowly, "Sam?"

Freddie looked around at the questioning faces then bashfully replied, "Sorry, I guess old habits die hard. Anything bad happens then it's usually Sam… then I would usually get the blame for it." He looked to Lane and continued, "I am not taking the blame for someone else, so don't even try to put this on me."

"No one is accusing you of anything," Lane assured him.

"Not yet you mean. I've gotten blamed for magically punching out an entire wall of Ridgeway after Sam's mom punched through it with the back of her car."

They looked to him as if he was serious and some apparently from the looks on their faces doubted his sanity.

He looked to all of them and continued, "There were a lot of stupid teachers at Ridgeway and Seattle really screwed me up. You all know that I'm working on getting straightened out."

Jade looked down and palmed her forehead then mumbled something out that sounded something like, "Fuck you Sam."

Lane apparently heard what Jade said, but remained quiet. He filed away that little bit of information in his head for a later time.

Jade looked up and took a deep breath before directing her gaze towards Tori commented with a smirk, "You're someone that would hurt Trina..."

Tori's brow furled and asked indignantly, "What, me?"

Jade answered in her usual mocking tone of a forties-era starlet and brought her balled fists to her chest for a moment then rested them on her knees with a bat of her eyes, "Who me? Well I would never hurt my dear sister Trina, not me, sweet Sally peaches!"

Tori growled out evidently annoyed, "I don't talk like that!"

Jade snorted out, "Whatever. I saw what happened."

Lane looked to Jade and asked in a curious tone, "When?"

Jade gave a slight nod of her head and answered, "Before the play, she and Trina were fighting."

Tori responded hotly, "We were arguing…"

Jade smirked as she interrupted, "Yeah, and do all your arguments end in '_I'm gonna kill you_'?"

Everyone in the room gasped except for Lane and Freddie.

"Oh don't gasp. I really didn't threaten her," she replied to everyone defensively.

"It sounded like it to me," the pale teenager replied confidently.

Lane crossed his arms and looked to Jade, "Okay, why don't you tell us exactly what you saw and heard?"

The raven haired teenager nodded in agreement and replied, "Sure. Uh... Let's see. It was about 20 minutes before the play started."

Black Box Theater

~20 minutes before the play

"_And I walked into the Black Box to find Freddie before the play and 'cause Robbie owed me ten bucks and I wanted it back."_

Jade casually walked inside the theater with a cup of coffee in her hand and glanced around for a moment before calling out, "Freddie? Robbie?"

"_I saw Trina and Tori fighting."_

Tori stomped after Trina as the older sister was going to her pink book bag sitting in one of the grey metal chairs and shouted, "Trina! TRINA!"

Jade took a step back in surprise at what she was witnessing.

Trina turned around and asked hesitantly, "What?"

Tori frowned deepened and demanded harshly, "I gave you the lead in my play; now give me my stinking Cuddle-Me-Cathy doll BACK!"

Jade had taken a few steps back and wrapped an arm around one of the support beams for the catwalk of the theater.

"OK, Ok, just a sec, relax," Trina replied with evident fear in her voice. She reached into her book bag and pulled out the doll then held it to Tori. "Here…"

Tori yank the doll out of her sister's hands and examined it for a brief moment then looked to Trina with a harsh glare. "Where is her BONNET!"

Trina reached into her book bag and pulled out the white bonnet then quickly handed it to her disheveled sister. "This thing?"

Tori took it from her hand and immediately noticed a spot on the bonnet and harshly asked, "What did you do to it!"

Trina puttered out, "I ahh… I might have blown my nose into it…"

Jade watched on in shock behind the sisters.

Tori growled out, "Oh, you FILTHY SKUNK BAG!" Tori grabbed some of Trina's brown locks in her right hand and continued to shout, "I am gonna kill you so hard!"

Jade grasped in shock as Tori let her sister go and threw the bonnet on the floor.

Sinjin with a smile and a handful of pansies approached Tori as she was making her way to the exit. "Hey Tori, I brought you some pansies."

Tori pulled back her right arm and slugged the curly haired teenager in the face and sending him face first into the floor. She looked down and spat on him then walked passed a shocked Jade.

Tori pushed open the door and was nearly out when she stopped for a moment and looked to Jade leaning against the support beam. She whispered out regretfully, "Why can't I be pretty like you?"

Jade shrugged her shoulders then Tori turned around and exited the theater.

Present

Tori's jaw dropped open and commented in outrage, "That's not even close to what happened."

"It's how I remember it," she countered confidently as she slightly swung in the chair.

"That's because you're demented," Tori countered with a snark.

Jade smirked and asked in a smooth voice, "Oh, so I'm pretty and demented?"

"I never said you were pretty and I never punched Sinjin," she answered in a heated tone.

Jade leaned forward and pointed at the brunette. "But you admit you threatened Trina?"

"No."

Robbie spoke up, "Wait, did I kind of did hear you tell Trina you were going to kill her."

Lane got up from the armrest of the couch and looked toward Tori.

Cat spoke up, "So did I, but if you are going to try to kill me too then all I heard was pretty music… La, la, la, la."

"Two witnesses," Jade spoke up with a smile and pointing to each of them with her arms crossed and leaning forward.

"Look, I know Tori…" André started, but interrupted when his phone beeped. André pointed towards Tori and shouted, "Ah, that's Keeko, Tori's guilty, I got to go," then tried to rush towards the door, but Lane stood in his way and pointed back towards the couch.

"Wow, that's loyalty for you," Freddie snickered out with a roll of his eyes.

The songsmith and former Tech-Producer locked eyes for a moment as Freddie may have attempted to shame André for making such a comment.

Tori shook her head. "I might have said something that sounded like a threat—"

Jade moved in for the verbal kill, "_SO_ you threatened her then someone just _happened_ to cut the gimbal on her harness?"

Tori motioned with her hands and replied defensively, "I didn't punch Sinjin and I didn't sabotage Trina's gimbal."

"Yes you did—"

"No I didn't—"

Jade yelled back and it quickly turned into a shouting match between her, Tori and André. Lane attempted to get thing back in control, but a knock on the office door interrupted any further argument. Lane announced, "Come in."

Sinjin walked inside and was holding the right side of his jaw. The curly haired teenager asked in somewhat a mumble, "Do you know where Nurse Cotter is?"

Lane raised an eyebrow as he asked, "No, why?"

"I think Tori broke my jaw."

Tori looked to him in shock then turned back in her seat to face forward to see Jade leaning forward and whispered out, "Dun, dun, dun."

Cat started singing again, "La, la, la…"

Tori and Jade both jumped up at the same time and Jade shouted, "What is wrong with you!"

The pair quickly started arguing among themselves.

"Okay!" Lane shouted to get the girls' attention. He looked back to Sinjin and rested a hand on the teenager's shoulder. "Sinjin, did Tori punch you in the jaw?"

"Yes."

"Ha!" Jade shouted in triumph.

"But it was an accident," Sinjin quickly finished.

"Ha!" Tori shouted back.

They both made noises and stuck their tongues out at each other.

Jade took back her seat with a look of disgust on her face.

Freddie tilted his head to the side slightly and replied with an annoyed voice, "You were fine during the play, but now you're suddenly in pain and you think your jaw is broken?"

"It just started hurting," the curly haired teenager countered.

Freddie shook his head, "Then you didn't break it."

Lane interrupted as he didn't want another argument to break out, "I think nurse Cotter is in the gym with Coach Davis."

"I'm going to go to the gym," Sinjin replied then turned to head out the door.

Freddie rolled his eyes and shook his head then looked to the rest of the group.

Tori pushed off leaning against Lane's desk and looked to her peers. "Okay, do you guys want to hear what really happened between me and Trina before the play started?"

André's phone played a short song and he got off the armrest of the couch. "Oh God, it's Keeko." He quickly answered his phone, "Hey girl."

Lane asked, "André?" as the teenager nodded along with the conversation he was having and making non-commitment noises.

"Shh!" he hissed out overdramatically and turned to the guidance counselor. Lane leaned backwards and put on a look of disbelief.

André turned his attention back to his phone. "Yeah, you just hang now, I'll be their in a bit, alright then," he finished in a smooth voice then turned to the rest and whined, "Can we get through this fast please?"

Lane sighed and put a gentle hand on André's shoulder for him to sit beside Freddie on the couch. The counselor looked to Tori and instructed with a wave of his hand, "Tell your story Tori."

Cat laughed, "Tori's story, that's so rhymie"

Tori shook her head slightly as she pulled her glance away from Cat. "It was twenty minutes before the play…"

Black Box Theater

~20 minutes before play starting

"…_I heard Jade come in, yelling for Freddie."_

Jade stepped inside the theater looking like a mess with wild, fizzled hair and apparently with several more piercings across her eyebrows and her teeth were yellow. She roared out and the rest of the students in the theater scrambled away quite fearful of the girl's presence.

The pale teenager's hair was a disheveled mess with green and yellow streaks down the side of her face as she walked further inside the theater. Jade growled out, "Freddie? Me want Freddie! BLAH!"

"_Oh, so I'm a monster now?" Jade questioned sarcastically._

"_Only if you don't have your morning coffee," Freddie commented with a bit of humor in his voice._

"_Freddie?"_

"_I'm kidding… sort of."_

"_Funny Freddie," Jade replied in a dry tone._

"_Let her tell it how she remembers it," Lane interrupted the couple's potential fight_.

"_Thank you."_

Jade kicked one of the metal chairs then over turned another one.

"_So yes, I was arguing with Trina, because she wouldn't give me back my Cuddle-Me-Cathy doll."_

Tori followed Trina out the side door of the ranch house door and whined, "Trina! Come on please?"

Trina snapped around, "What?"

Tori replied in a sweet and happy voice, "I gave you the lead in my play, so could I please have my doll back, please?"

Trina rolled her eyes and sighed out in disgust, "Alright, just a sec." She reached into her book bag and pulled out the doll then held it to Tori. "Here…"

"Ohh… thank you so much. Ahh… I'm pretty sure she had a bonnet?" she asked with a huge grin and her fingers playfully danced across the doll's blue hair.

Trina reached into her book bag and pulled out the white bonnet then quickly handed it to her disheveled sister. "Uhgg, whatever, take it."

"Thank you." Tori immediately noticed a spot on the bonnet and held it up as she asked softly, "Do you know what happened to it?"

Trina snorted out without a care and placed a hand on her hip, "Yeah, I blew some snot into it."

Jade watched on with a frown behind the sisters.

Tori laughed out, "My God, stop making me laugh or I'm going to kill you."

Robbie and Cat laughed as they poked their heads out for a moment around the house ranch set.

"Well thanks for giving me my Cuddle-Me-Cathy Back. I am so happy." Tori flung her arms back and the back of her right hand slapped Sinjin in the face as he approached her from behind with a handful of pansies and sending him to the floor.

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry," Tori cried out as she knelt down to help Sinjin off the floor.

"Yeah, I'm going to go put on my alien makeup on," Trina commented then headed out of the theater.

"Move," Trina shouted as she slammed her right arm against Jade and sent her cup of coffee to the floor and spilling it all over her shirt and skirt.

Jade looked down at herself for a moment before she roared in anger.

Trina turned and looked to Jade. She spoke in a sarcastic tone, "It's not my fault you spilt your coffee… klutz."

The disheveled looking pale teenager turned her head to look in Tori's direction and growled through gritted yellow teeth.

Present

"Okay that's like the opposite of what really happened," Jade countered with a hint of smugness in her voice as she slightly swung in the wicker webbed chair.

"That's exactly how it happened," Tori answered back confidently as she continued to lean back against Lane's desk.

Freddie spoke up, "Spencer did the same thing to me one time… but there's a problem with your story… How come Jade doesn't have a coffee stain on her shirt?"

"What?" Tori asked surprised and raised an eyebrow.

Freddie pointed to Jade. "She doesn't have a stain on her shirt or skirt. So, Trina couldn't have spilt any coffee on her."

Jade leaned forward, resting her crossed forearms on her knees. "Yes Tori, where's the stain? You really think I'd hurt Trina over spilt coffee that didn't happen." Jade palmed her upper chest. "I'm going to sabotage my boyfriend's first production at the school just to hurt Trina? Really Tori?"

"You put Sam in the hospital, so yes I do think you could really hurt somebo—"

Jade clenched her jaw and instantly jumped up from the seat and pointed to the brunette. Gone was the playful smugness as her voice went harsh and filled with venom, "You're damn right I put that bitch in the hospital! _I had to take Freddie to the hospital!_ She nearly gave him a concussion and tore his arm out of his socket. I just wish I had broken a few more of her damn ribs with my steel toe! I guess I'll just have to settle for the 'beauty mark' I left on her face."

Tori leaned back and swallowed nervously seeing the look in the pale actress' eyes. The rest kept silent at watching the outburst, some out of fear, Cat out of sympathy. They thought they were seeing her anger, but Cat knew she was seeing her pain.

Jade's outburst was quite revealing to Lane, but he had more pressing matters than exploring that revelation. He approached with his hands raised in an attempt to calm her. "Jade, I need you to take a breath."

The dark brunette snapped her head to face the guidance counselor directing a hateful glare at him. He was taken aback from the intensity of the look in her eyes.

Freddie whispered, "Jade?"

Jade looked to her boyfriend giving her an understanding expression.

"It's okay," he attempted to reassure her.

She took several deep breaths and had a seat back in the swinging chair. She brushed some hair out of her face and shook her head for a moment then looked back to Tori. "It doesn't matter what you think Tori. After Trina left the theater, I found Freddie and we were together for that last few minutes before the play started. So I couldn't have done it and neither could Freddie."

Rex remarked with an overdramatic motion of his head, "Oh how convenient that the couple is alibing one another."

Freddie sighed and shook his head as he commented, "Why would I need an alibi?"

Rex spoke up, "Well you and Trina did get into it just before the play started."

Freddie frowned as he replied, "I am not going to argue with your right hand Robbie. If you are going to accuse me of something, then be man enough to pull your hand out of your puppet and say it to my face."

"Don't call me a puppet," Rex shouted in outrage.

Freddie shrugged a shoulder. "Fine then, Sam was right: you're a rejected Muppet."

"Hey!" Rex shouted in outrage.

Lane raised his hands. "Enough, can we just get back to trying to figure out what happened?"

"Fine, I'll tell you what happened," Rex offered.

"You weren't there," Robbie pointed out.

"I know what happened. Let me tell the story," the wild haired 'teenager' demanded.

"Oh, no, no. Now we got to hear another version the story from unique point of view?" André whined then cried into his hands then dropped in a seat beside Freddie.

Lane motioned to Rex. "Let him tell his story."

Black Box Theater

~18 minutes before the play started

"_Well, it was just after Tori accidentally hit Sinjin and Trina was about to go put her alien makeup on…"_

Freddie growled out and pointed his finger towards Trina's face. "You're just being lazy!"

Trina frowned nervously and whispered out timidly, "What did you just say?"

"I said you're just lazy, full of herself actress. You want the role, but you don't actually want to work for it. You're just like Sam: lazy and pathetic and still expect everything to be handed to you on a silver platter, but this isn't about you. This is our grade, not yours, so either put the effort into it or get out of the way for someone else!"

Freddie took another step forward and stared Trina straight in the eyes and growled, "If you jank me over on this play, I'm going to make you pay!"

The former Tech-Producer turned and headed for the door where Jade was standing against one of the support beams for the catwalk. The pair headed out the main entrance.

Present

"That's what really happened," Rex finished confidently.

Jade glared at Robbie and Rex.

Lane turned and looked to Freddie. "Freddie, would you care to share what you saw before the play?"

André stood up clearly irritated with the situation. "So none of you people want me to have a pretty girlfriend is that it?" They looked to him with bewilderment as he continued counting off with his fingers, "I find myself a Keeko, I make myself a Keeko date and nobody cares. Well that's cool, go on Freddie tell us what happened and start from the beginning. Just start from Adam and Eve and go from there!" The irate songsmith in disgust took a seat beside the Seattle native.

Lane motioned to Freddie and instructed, "Just tell us what happened."

Freddie shook his head and replied calmly, "No."

"No?"

Freddie shrugged a shoulder, "I told you already: you're just going to blame me anyway and I'm not wasting my breath telling you what happened 'from my unique point of view'." He thumbed over to André. "I'm not wasting time and having André miss out on his date with Keeko even if I think he can do better with someone else."

André blinked and asked in complete bewilderment, "Who?"

Freddie turned his head and looked dead on for a moment at Tori still leaning against Lane's desk. Tori blinked then let her brow furl trying to figure out why Freddie was looking at her. He held the gaze only a few more moments then snorted out a laugh and raised his hands as he looked to André. "I'm letting you figure that one out all on your own."

The former Tech-Producer got up from the couch. "Lane, I'm done with this and I think I've humored you enough. Tori and I just probably flunked our first production and I need to get to work so I can salvage something out of this day. If you think I did it, then go prove it. In the mean time, bye." Freddie turned around and headed out the door as he left Lane dumbfounded.

Rex called out, "He's walking out; he did it!"

Jade got up from the webbed hanging chair and shooting Robbie and Rex an angry glance as she passed them and attempted to catch up with Freddie.

She was just out of the room and at the end of the empty main hallway when she saw Freddie's retreating form halfway down the hallway. She briskly walked to catch up with him and called out, "Freddie!"

Freddie turned around and snapped, "What?"

Jade blinked and took a step back from the outburst. Her mouth moved in an attempt to speak, but her throat refused to make any sounds.

Freddie closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. He opened his eyes and took several steps forward into Jade's sphere of personal space. In a slow and deliberate tone he continued, "Do you realize that every time you laughed at Trina's video or comments or took a little bit of pleasure in Tori's misfortune that you were laughing at me too?"

Jade blinked in shock as she processed what he was saying.

Freddie palmed his forehead and blew out a breath. He dropped his hand and looked back to her bluish/green eyes. "I accept that you have this rivalry with Tori and it's between the two of you and I've already said my peace about it, but my first production just went down the toilet. Someone janks me over _again_, but this time they hurt some other people along the way. If I didn't know better, I'd think Sam really did do it and all the while, you make jokes and _laugh_."

Jade frowned and looked down as she couldn't look into his hurt eyes.

Freddie shook his head and let out a tired breath. He finished in a defeated tone, "I just need to get to work." He took a step forward and gave her a quick peck on the cheek and whispered with a tired voice, "I'll see you in a few hours."

He pulled back to meet her eyes for a moment. Jade nodded and whispered out shamefully, "Okay."

He gave her one last smile then turned to head for the exit and to the school parking lot.

The dark brunette blinked for a moment as she felt her eyes being to sting. She lifted her right hand and dabbed the tear dot of her right eye with her ring finger. She pulled her hand back and saw the smeared tear on the tip of her fingertip.

The pale actress blew out a harsh breath through her nose and put on a determined look on her face. She turned and headed back to the office. She shoved the door open and wore a look of pure hatred on her face. The rest of the students looked back with apprehension. "Okay, one of you did it and I want to know right now!"

Tori threw out her hands and motioned with them as she countered, "Jade, no one would have done that to Trina."

"If it was cut then someone did it. I didn't do it and Freddie didn't do it. So, whoever did it better tell me right now or I swear when I do find out, I'm going to make you really pay for it."

Robbie spoke up, "It doesn't matter. We could all tell what happened, but we're not going to get any closer to who really cut Trina's gimbal."

Everyone started speaking at once and Jade started yelling at whoever she was looking at for that moment and quickly broke down to everyone just yelling at each other until Tori shouted to get everyone's attention, "Listen alright!" Tori looked to Jade, "Enough." She turned to Lane. "Lane you know I think you're awesome, but this whole thing is insane. Look what it's turning into. I mean, okay we all know that Trina can be really annoying."

They all verbally agreed instantly.

"But honestly, come on do you really think any person in this room would seriously try to hurt her? I know I wouldn't and I don't think any of you guys would either… really, not even Jade," she gestured to the blue/green streaked hair teenager.

"I might," she admitted hesitantly and they all turned to her. "But I didn't," she finished with a relaxed face.

Robbie pointed out, "You know, some of the rigging equipment we use is kind of old."

"Yeah," Tori was the first to agree followed by the rest in the room. She calmly continued, "I think it was just an accident."

Lane looked down at the gimbal in his hand for a moment then back to the rest of the students. "I think Tori is probably right. It looks like it was cut."

Rex asked curiously, "Sabotage?"

Lane shrugged a shoulder, "But maybe it was just old and it broke."

"So not sabotage?" Rex asked in a high pitched voice.

"And since Trina wasn't seriously hurt, I say we should put this whole incident behind us—"

"KEEKO!" André shouted as he stood up from the couch then leapt clear over it and rushed out the door past Jade.

Tori threw up her hands and shook her head.

Jade closed her eyes and palmed her forehead. Now all she had to figure out how to fix the situation.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Happy New Years my dear readers! I have a New Years present for you in the form of another chapter. I hope you like this chapter.**

**Special Guest Appearance by Jennifer Connelly as Ruby West**

**Thanks Jeremy Shane for your review.**

Chapter 5

Pear Store Beverly Center  
>8500 Beverly Boulevard, Suite #656<br>Los Angeles, CA 90048

Freddie wore the best fake smile as possible as he finished helping the light redheaded middle age woman with her purchase of a new PearPad. He may have felt miserable, but he wasn't going to show it to his customers. "Thank you Mister Benson, I know Megan will love it," she thanked him as she picked up the bag from the counter.

"You're welcome ma'am; I hope she does. You have a nice weekend," he responded as he continued to smile and nod.

"You too," she replied then turned to leave the store.

His fake smile turned into a partial genuine one as he realized he made a nice little commission with that sale. He noticed two teenage girls around his age approaching, one a blonde and the other a brunette smiling very stupidly at him.

The brunette flashed a smile at him and asked, "We're looking to getting one of the Mark Two PearPads."

He nodded along and motioned with his hand over to the Pad selection area. "Okay, I can help. If you ladies would follow me?"

He walked around the counter then led the ladies towards the display area for the various Pads. Once they reached the section of the various Pads, Freddie began, "Now this PearPad offers—"

The blonde teenager asked, "Why did you quit?"

"Excuse me?" he asked caught off guard from the question.

The brunette one of the pair spoke up, "iCarly?"

Freddie cleared his throat and put back on a smile as he replied patiently, "Personal reasons."

"You should be with Sam!" the blonde instantly countered.

The brunette shot a glare towards her friend and hissed out, "He should be with Carly."

Freddie sighed and palmed his forehead. He dropped his hand and smiled that hinted at his disgust at the two teenagers. He replied with far more patience than he felt, "Do I get a say in that matter?"

The question threw off the arguing fans as they turned their attention back to the former Tech-Producer.

"Have either of you thought that I don't want to be with either of them? Or maybe neither of them wants to be with me? Do either of you think that guys and girls can't just be platonic friends?"

The blonde puttered out, "But Sam said she liked you during your last broadcast in Troubled Waters."

"Here's some advice for you ladies: when you realize you like a guy, don't tell him the reason why you checked yourself into a mental hospital is because you realize you like him and think you're crazy for it. It's a big turn off… and treating him like chizz the entire time beforehand doesn't help matters."

The Northridge girls shut their mouths, stunned at the revelation.

The manager at the store approached with a bright smile on his face. "Is there a problem Freddie?" he asked genuinely concerned.

Freddie looked over to the tall middle-aged man. "Ah… my celebrity past is a hindrance this time."

He raised his hand and smiled, "It's alright, just go ahead and take your break. I'll handle this."

"Thanks," he answered grateful not to have to deal with the girls on top of what had already happened today.

"Not a problem." The manager started directing the teenagers to either seriously shop for something in the store or to leave as Freddie made his way to the employees' lounge.

The room was empty for the moment which he was grateful. He walked over to one of the drink machines and pulled out a dollar from his wallet to feed into the machine. He pressed the button for his cola and quickly picked up his drink and change from the machine.

He walked over and popped open the mouth of the can drink as took a seat at one of the white, circular table. The brown eye teenager took a quick sip from his drink then stared off as he held his cupped his soft drink resting on the table. His mind finally had the break to start processing the day.

Trina got hurt. She was lucky she hadn't actually broken something swinging that much and breaking the table when she fell.

His first production after leaving iCarly just went down the tube. He briefly thought that maybe he was cursed and that it had followed him from Seattle.

If something as simple as one play could be ruined for him and Tori, what other things did he have to look forward to in messing up? Would his friendships with the others just on borrowed time and could collapse at any minute?

What about with Jade?

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he realized that there was proof of his failure was on-line now thanks to Jade. She hadn't stopped to think about the consequences of doing such a thing… how it could really affect Tori and Trina… or him… just like two other girls from his past.

This was going to be his first real fight with Jade when he got back to the Wests' home instead of their minor disagreements over the last month and he didn't have a clue how it was going to work out.

_What a day?_

In route to Helen Dubois' Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Friday, September 16, 2011

Tori was in the driver's seat of Trina's car as Jade was riding in the passenger's seat with the side of her head resting on the window looking out at the passing scenery while Cat was giggling away in the backseat playing some game on Tori's PearPad. Jade had practically dragged Tori to the vehicle and demanded that they drive to Helen Dubois' home after she had found out that their principal had already left for the day.

Tori glanced over towards Jade as the pale teenager continued to look out of the passenger window. The lighter brunette focused her attention on the road as she asked, "Are you going to tell me what we're doing?"

Jade lifted her head off the passenger window and stared coldly at her fellow performer. "We're going to Helen's house. How hard is that to comprehend?"

Tori snorted out a breath as she approached a traffic light. She asked in a dry tone, "I mean why are we going to see Helen?"

Jade let out a tired breath as she didn't really want to deal with the brunette at the moment. "We're going to see her to make sure that you and Freddie get to do the play over and that your teacher doesn't somehow penalize you for what happened."

Tori brought the vehicle to a halt at the signaled red light. "Oh, well… you could have just told me."

The dark brunette shook her head slightly and closed her eyes.

The singer began, "I know you're not exactly doing this for me—"

The pale actress snorted out dismissively as she spared a glance at the other actress, "You think?"

Tori brushed off the sarcastic remark and finished, "But thanks."

Jade remained silent as she rested her elbow against the door and her cheek against her closed fist while looking back out the passenger window.

The light changed green then Tori proceeded through the intersection and continued on their way. The car remained silent other then the occasional soft giggle from Cat in the backseat as she continued to play her game on the PearPad.

The lighter brunette finally broke the silence, "I'm sorry about bringing up Sam…"

Jade's neck and shoulder muscles tensed up for a moment as her jaw clenched tight. _'Not as much fun when someone fights back is it?'_ crossed the dark brunette's mind.

"…that was a cheap shot. I know you only did what you had to do. I shouldn't have used that to imply anything against you."

Jade thought back to when Freddie inadvertently brought up about the stage fighting incident a few days ago when he had his doubts about talking to Lane in the future, specifically how she treated two very similar people in two different ways. She directed her glance downward and whispered, "Why do you two have to be so much alike?"

"What?" Tori asked with a curious tone.

Jade opened her hand to rest her cheek in her palm as she turned her head around to stare at the brunette as the lighter brunette continued to focus on the road. "This, this being nice stuff when people are mean to you."

She shrugged her shoulders as she answered, "I don't know. I guess that is just the way we are."

"I'd wish you'd stop," Jade whispered in an almost regretful tone.

"Why?"

She spoke in a quiet tone, as if she was trying to convince herself to the truthfulness of her statement, "Because that's not how it's supposed to work."

"Do you wish Freddie would stop?"

Jade shut her mouth as she directed an annoyed glance at Tori.

The other actress wasn't going to accept the silence as an answer as she pushed onward, "I guess that's a no, so why are you nice to him while you're mean to me?"

The pale teenager thought back on all the things Freddie had said and what he didn't say about her rivalry with the lighter brunette she was studying at the moment: about how friendships were hard enough without worrying about frenemies to how he didn't condemn her for her feelings even as he disagreed with her actions… disagreement, not condemnation. His last unintended point as he left school stabbed at her in that she allowed it to go too far and hurt him and for what? Reasons that didn't even exist anymore. Tori couldn't take Beck from her and last night Freddie made it clear that neither Tori nor any other female friends were going to take him from her. Tori wasn't going to be an obstacle anymore for roles as she was going to be making her own opportunities. So why was she going to be mean to the other girl? Just on pure momentum?

Jade let out a breath then replied, "I had my reasons, but… they don't really exist anymore."

Tori slightly frowned and raised an eyebrow as she tried to make sense of the answer. She hesitantly asked, "So are you going to be nicer to me?"

Jade smirked as she answered, "One step at a time Tori."

Helen Dubois Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<p>

Helen let out an annoyed breath as she hurried to her door as someone was frantically pushing on the doorbell. She was going to give a piece of her mind to the person bothering her on a Friday afternoon. She opened the door and was surprised at seeing the three teenage girls standing on her front porch. She lost her fire in chewing someone out at seeing the determined look on Jade's face.

She swallowed nervously as she asked, "Ah, what are you doing here?"

"We need to talk to you," Jade answered as she slipped past the school principal and into her home.

Helen turned to face the pale teenage actress and asked with a hint of concern. "About what?"

"About getting something graded again," she answered with a hint of impatience.

"What?"

Helen looked back to Tori as the teenager cleared her throat nervously as she was still intimidated by the former child star. "I was putting on play—"

Jade butted in to forcibly correct her rival, "Her and _Freddie_ were putting on a play this afternoon."

Tori narrowed her look she was giving the darker brunette then looked back to Helen. "Yes, me and Freddie were directing a play and we had an accident in the middle of it. My sister Trina was performing a scene where we lifted her up in the air, but the rigging failed and brought the play down—"

"And the poor ranch house," Cat finished in a sad tone.

Helen looked at the redhead with a curious expression for a moment then back to Tori. "Your sister that really doesn't have any talent other than hurting people?"

"Yes," Tori answered with a regretful tone.

"Why would you put her in your play?"

"Long story, anyway—"

Jade frowned and caught Helen's attention to look directly into the slightly shorter woman's eyes. "Anyway, this was Freddie and Tori's first production. They couldn't control that and they need it graded again. We're here to make sure that happens."

Helen swallowed and was intimidated by the brunette. She may have washed out the black hair color, but she wasn't any less scary and the school principal hadn't been that scared of her since seeing her re-audition film. "Does your teacher not want to put it back on?"

Jade rested a hand on her hip and shrugged a shoulder as she replied flippantly, "I didn't bother asking. I'm saving the time in case he wants to say no and make up some excuse about it being their responsibility to somehow prevent it from happening."

Jade may have been projecting a casual stance, but Helen saw the look in the teenager's eyes. She was not usually afraid of anyone, but she had a feeling that crossing her would be as stupid as crossing Megan Parker. So she did the sane thing to do: agreed. "Sure, not a problem. So, when do you want to perform it?"

"Ahh…" Tori replied in surprise not expecting it would be that easy to get Helen to agree.

"Monday?" Jade suggested that sounded more like telling Tori. "Go ahead and get back on it so no one has any real time to forget lines or anything else." Jade looked to Tori with a stern look as she answered, "Cat will play Trina's part. Freddie wanted her in the first place."

"But—"

"I am NOT arguing with you or Trina over this Tori," she replied sternly as she gave a death glare at the brunette.

Helen leaned over and whispered to Tori, "I suggest you listen to her."

Tori raised her hands in surrender. "Fine, Cat will play the part."

Cat's eyebrows furled as she asked curiously and with a hint of worry, "Do I have to get my feet that white?"

Shay Apartment  
>Seattle, WA<br>Friday, September 16, 2011

It was about an hour before iCarly was about to start broadcasting as Carly sat at the living room side of the kitchen counter watching the SplashFace video of Trina swinging back and forth. The events unfolding on the screen and the comments left by viewers would be hilarious to any other person, but she didn't find it funny at all. She found it quite sad as this was how Freddie's first production at Hollywood Arts had turned out. She wasn't sure if she should be relishing or revolting at the irony that it was Jade that had posted the video. She wondered if the pale actress was too stupid or too callus in knowing how it could hurt Freddie. She was hoping no one would realized that the scene was from something Freddie was behind in making as the video didn't specify Freddie in anyway other than seeing his back while he attempted to catch the swinging teenager.

Sam walked around the counter after grabbing a drink from the Shay's refrigerator to lean against the counter to Carly's left.

"What'cha watching?" the blonde asked with a curious tone.

The younger teenager didn't get a chance to answer as Sam immediately recognized the girl swinging around on screen. "Is that Trina?"

"Yeah," Carly nodded along.

Sam raised an eyebrow as she pointed to the screen. "What is this?"

"It's what happened at Freddie's first production at Hollywood Arts. There was an obvious failure in the rigging to make Trina fly during the middle of a scene and this is what happened."

Sam shut her mouth hard for a moment as the topic of Freddie for the past few weeks had almost become a taboo subject to openly discuss. Each girl had assumed the other was handling the absence in their own way: Carly burying herself in school work and the web-show, but the blonde had noticed that Carly was chatting and texting more often than she did in the past since she got back from staying with her cousins, but with whom, she did not know. Sam distracted herself with trying to improve her own studies with the help of Brad and avoid run-ins with any type of authority since Carly was no longer allowed to bail her out of trouble (figuratively and literally) anymore even if she was so inclined.

The blonde glanced back at the screen and noticed something that made her eyes open wide. "Wait, is this Jade's page?"

"Yes."

Sam initially wasn't sure she had heard her dark headed friend correctly, so she asked, "Jade posted it?"

Carly nodded in confirmation then brushed some of her bangs off of her forehead.

Sam suddenly laughed out. She used the back of her hand to wipe away any tears threatening to fall as she commented, "I bet he's regretting picking her over us."

Carly held her tongue as she didn't trust herself in saying anything productive.

Sam leaned forward and in front of Carly in an effort to steal the mouse. "I have to post this as a—"

"No," Carly interrupted with a forceful voice and held on to the mouse.

"Why not? Jade posted it. She obviously didn't have a problem with humiliating Freddie."

The brunette narrowed her gaze on the dirty blonde and replied in a stern voice, "I don't care what she posted. You're not going to pile on. They are obviously going to have to deal with what she did."

Sam let out a breath and realized the brunette was right. As much as she would have liked some payback on the pale actress, the end result would have just be hurting Freddie even if she still struggling with her mixed feelings on whether or not she should care. "Fine, I'm not going to link it."

"And no commenting either," Carly reiterated with a nod of her head. She didn't wait for a reply as she hopped off the red stool then made her way towards the stairs.

"Where are you going?" she asked as she turned to watch the brunette walk away.

"I need to talk to someone," the brunette yelled back as she was already half-way up the stairs.

"He left us for that," the blonde commented with an irritated tone.

The web-hostess paused for a moment and spared a glance over her shoulder. "Yeah, but she never pretended to be perfect for him," she said regretfully then headed up the stairs.

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<p>

It was just after nine and Jade had not bothered to change as she was sitting in her burgundy chair in her room reading over the script and attempting to memorize lines as quickly as possible on the off chance that she needed to take Robbie or André's place in the play on Monday. She had already spent the last several hours at Tori's house helping Cat learn her lines phonetically for Monday since to Jade's surprise the lines were actually words from one of the languages from Galaxy Wars and actually had real English translations. Tori had taken André's lines and she, Robbie's lines to allow them to go through several table reads of the play. They were going to perform dress rehearsals all weekend if necessary and she didn't care about whatever dates with Keeko André may have or whatever silly plans Robbie had for the weekend.

She finally took a break from reading when she heard her phone ring as it sat on one of the small red circular tables beside her chair. She picked it up and spared a quick glance to see the caller ID was identifying the caller as Beck. She pressed the receive button and brought the pear shaped phone to her ear.

"_Hey, I've been trying to get a hold of you for the last few hours,"_ he stated with a concerned tone.

She let out another breath as she answered him in an apologetic tone, "Sorry, but I've been kind of busy with Cat and Tori and trying to memorize some lines."

"_About her and Freddie's play?"_ She remained silent for a moment, so he continued, _"I heard what happened at the play this afternoon."_

"André tell you?"

"_No, I ah… noticed that you updated a new video on your Splashface page."_

Jade sighed in regret at being reminded that she had posted the video on-line. She had prayed in vain that no one would make the connection that the scene had anything to do with Freddie. She knew there were some particularly vicious former fans of his that were more than eager rub it in his face on how he wasn't anything without Carly and Sam by some of the posts left on his Slap page before he deleted the comments last weekend.

She whispered unintentionally into the phone, "I messed up."

"_Jade, we all mess up. It's not the end of the world."_

The dark brunette remained quiet as she was not as confident as Beck.

"_Have you talked to him about it?"_

"Not yet. He's still at work. He should be home in a little more than an hour. He gets off just after ten."

She heard him clear his throat on the other end of the line. _"Well, when he gets… home… you'll work everything out."_

"Yeah," she replied doubtful.

"_So, are they going to reschedule the play?"_

"That's what we've been busy with. We went over to Helen's house to make sure that they were going to do a do over with it without a problem."

"_Then everything's going to be fine. If you guys need any help… I know she likes Freddie, but she really likes my hair."_

Jade snorted out a laugh as the joke did lift her spirits then replied, "Everyone likes your hair." She could almost feel him smiling on the other end of the line. "Thanks Beck."

"_No problem. I'll let you go and get back to your lines. I'll talk to you later. Have a nice night."_

"You too, bye."

Jade cracked a smile as she pressed the end call button with the feeling that maybe things would work out. She glance at the time on her phone and saw she had a good hour or more until Freddie would get back, so she turned back to her the script sitting in her lap and started continuing on memorizing lines.

It was about a quarter to eleven when Freddie arrived at the West Residence. He quickly passed by the living room on his way to Jade's room and exchanged a quick greeting with the West Matriarch who was watching TV at the moment even though he could sense that she wanted to talk. However, she didn't stop him. He stopped at the threshold of Jade's room and took a quick look inside as the dark room as door was left wide open.

He thought for a moment that she had already went to bed and forgot to shut her door, but the ambient light from the hallway lit the room enough for him to see that she wasn't in her bed. He slightly frowned wondering about where she could be at the moment as she hadn't told him that she was spending the night a Cat's house. The brown haired teenager turned and headed for his room.

He stopped when he saw a light on spilling through the cracked open door and the sound of his television on. He gently pushed the door open with his fingertips and stepped on the threshold into his room. He leaned against the doorframe as he saw Jade sitting in his bed with her back propped up with his pillows against the headboard as she was reading over a sheet of stapled papers that looked like a spare script to his and Tori's play as she was not paying any attention to the television. She had changed into a long sleeve blue shirt with a slight V-neck cut and grey sweatpants. This was also one of the few times he had seen her pull her hair back in a ponytail.

The brown eye teenager spoke softly, "Hey."

She looked up with an expression on her face suggested that she hadn't immediately noticed him standing at the doorway. "Hey," she replied just as hesitantly.

Freddie paused and took a sharp intake of breath as he saw the sadness and shame in her eyes as they hit him just as hard as a surprise slap to the face from Sam. He may have been taken aback from speaking for the moment, but Jade had no such hesitation as she spoke with a soft and shamefully whispered, "I'm sorry."

He had heard many fake and out of reflex apologies, but this one sounded quite different from all the other in his life: the sound of truth behind her words. Freddie wasn't exactly sure how to react one he knew to be real, so he did what he thought was the safe thing to do and shake his head and gave a regretful smile as he replied, "It's alright. I'm sorry for snapping at you. I was just irritable with what happened."

She wasn't going to let him get her off the hook that easily, "No it's not… and you had a right to be irritable. I shouldn't have put my thing with Tori before you and made what happened into some kind of joke. I guess it's just habit at this point the way I carry on with Tori."

Freddie smirked as he responded, "And here I was thinking it was your way of flirting with one another."

She frowned and furled her eyebrows.

Freddie lifted his head slightly and broke into a soft chuckle at seeing her reaction.

She cracked a smile a few moments later at seeing him smile after the long day.

He pushed off the door frame and shut the door behind him then walked over and had a seat on the edge of the right side of the bed. He took a moment to untie his sneakers and slip them off of his feet. He pulled his legs up onto the bed then scooted back to rest his back on the propped up pillows and used a free hand to unbutton his black vest over his flannel patterned button shirt. She dropped the script down on her left side and immediately scooted over and rested her head on his shoulder while lopping her right arm with his arm.

She let out a soft breath and whispered, "I'm sorry about what happened today. I didn't realize how important this play was for you… how much you needed it for yourself."

She was about to tell him that she would still get his chance, but he spoke up, "Yeah, well chizz happens to me… so, did Lane ever figure out who sabotaged Trina's line or am I going to have to worry about him on Monday?"

Jade lifted her head and rested her chin on his shoulder. She hated that as much as he tried to break from his old life, a part of him was still holding on the idea that it was alright for him to be miserable and for bad things to happen to him. She wasn't sure how to disagree with him in a way that he would actually listen to her and not just placate her. "You don't have to worry about anything. Tori just put her foot down with Lane and told him that she thought it was just an accident. The equipment was just getting old and it broke."

Freddie cracked a smile. "That's the one bit of good news: that no one really wanted to hurt Trina."

"Speaking of good news, I have some more," she supplied eagerly.

He raised an eyebrow as he asked, "Oh? I could use some."

"I dragged Cat and Tori with me to go talk to Helen after you left. You and Tori are going to get a chance to put your play on Monday afternoon. Cat's going to take Trina's role and she and Tori are going to practice all weekend."

Freddie blinked and tried to speak, but was unable to form words immediately.

Jade grinned as she realized that she may have just fixed what had happened for him.

He was finally able to stutter out, "Ahh… wow, I wasn't expecting that… thank you."

She snorted out a soft laugh, "You're welcome," then leaned over just to cross those few inches between their mouths and locked her lips with his lips.

He instinctively leaned in to deepen the kiss and brought his right hand up to rest on her hip which signaled to her to bring her left hand to rest on his right shoulder as for each to pull the other closer. He pulled back a few seconds later as a thought occurred to him. "Ah, but we were going to start on your film this weekend?"

She had to resist rolling her eyes. "Being sweet again?" She didn't wait for an answer as she kissed the corner of his mouth then whispered, "We have plenty of time for that." She started kissing him again and gently nibbled on his bottom lip between kisses. He in returned lightly kissed on her upper lip that tasted particularly sweet this time. Freddie also realized he was not going to argue with his very affectionate girlfriend at the moment.

In the need to feel closer to him, Jade lifted her left leg up and shifted her body over to straddle his lap without pulling her lips away from his lips. Her other hand looped out of his arm and rested on his other shoulder as his hands slipped around to the small of her back. She eventually pulled back to catch her breath and give him a playful smile.

He chuckled back then asked with a hint of his boyish charm, "Do you want to stay the night? I'll let you use my Galaxy Wars pillow."

Jade snorted out a laugh. "You sure know how to incentivize a girl."

He grinned as he tapped her nose with his own and whispered in reply, "Oh yes I do, but would it sweeten the deal if I told you that you also looked really hot in that outfit today?"

Jade bit her bottom lip then whispered just before capturing his lips again, "Maybe," and her last thought crossing her mind, _'I'll have to remember that.'_


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: Hello my dear readers. I hope you all had a nice New Years and week. I have another chapter for you and I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to you all for reading and reviewing. Remember, you don't have to be shy.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 6<p>

Black Box Theater  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Monday, September 19, 2011<br>3:40 P.M.

Tori stood off to the side of the stage looking over everything one last time with Freddie personally double checking the rigging for Cat. She let out a nervous breath as Freddie walked up beside her. "Nervous?"

"No?"

Freddie snorted out a laugh, "Liar."

She nodded back playfully. "Yeah I am. Is everything ready?"

He let out a relieved breath and smiled as he answered, "We're good. We can go ahead and grab our seats."

"Right," she nodded along then allowed Freddie to lead her around the stage and to their front row seats on the right side of the theater.

Mister Allen was sitting on the other side of the partitioned walkway, but unlike last time, he was wearing a slight frown. None of them were exactly sure why: the fact that he was having to re-grade the play after school or the fact that Helen and her assistant were sitting beside him. She was quite excited for the play to begin as she had decided that she wanted to see the play that Tori and Freddie were producing, besides Jade wanting to make sure she was there to assure Mister Allen would grade the performance fairly without any consideration of the last performance. Unknown to any of the teenagers, she had no particular interest either way in regards to Tori, but she interested in Freddie's input as it turned out she had been a fan of his work on iCarly. She had even wished he was her camera operator when she was a child star, knowing that he would have made her even more famous and not allowed her loser co-stars to steal her scenes.

Mister Allen's apparent lack of enthusiasm at being there didn't help ease Tori's nervousness, but Freddie's confidence helped reassure her as they took their seats. Tori took that seat at the end of the row to the separating walkway with Freddie taking the seat to her left. Jade had already taken the seat to Freddie's left with Trina and surprisingly Beck on the row behind them. The elder Vega sister didn't put up that much of an argument about being replaced as she was still sore from Friday and was not all that eager to get hooked up into a harness again.

"I haven't been this nervous since having to re-audition," Tori whispered to Freddie and indicated with a nod of her head towards Helen.

Jade leaned slight over passing in front of Freddie to whisper back, "Just pretend you're like one of the seniors from last year when she wanted them to re-audition."

"What did the seniors do?" Freddie asked curiously with a raised eyebrow.

Jade straightened up in her seat and cracked a smile as she recalled what happened, "When Helen asked us to re-audition, it was early April and school was just over in about a month and a half—" She paused as she noticed that Freddie had started to slightly blush.

She suppressed a laugh as she realized that he was thinking about how she looked in the short-film. _'Wait until you see me in my next outfit,'_ passed through her mind, but she continued without comment, "We were about a month and a half before the end of the year. When the seniors found out she was going to make them re-audition to stay just weeks before graduation, they collectively as a class told her to more or less to could go jank herself. She couldn't kick out the entire senior class and she just couldn't kick out the ringleaders, so she stopped the re-auditions next day."

The thought of telling Helen to go jank herself did nothing to reassure the lighter brunette.

Jade snorted out a laugh, "I guess that was Daniel Ryder's one redeeming quality." She then quoted from memory what he had told the senior class to rally them: 'After four years, we're now suppose to be judged by a has been child actress and be impressed she can hit a high note? This woman's last job was running a movie theater!'"

Tori shook her head as she did not want to think about the guy that nearly played her to get an A on his singing project. She directed her attention forward as the curtain was being pulled open.

The play began just as before, but with this time Cat was in the role of the alien sister and insisted on having Vulcan ears. Freddie hadn't argued with her over the matter as it was purely cosmetic anyway and none of the characters were suppose to pay the ears any real attention. He thought the ears looked quite good on her.

The play continued smoothly with Helen laughing out loud several times and with bated breath on Tori and Freddie's part when Cat started swinging in the air. On the off chance that there was a repeat of a line snapping, Freddie was ready to jump up this time and catch the redhead. However, it wasn't needed as the play finished out over the course of the next fifteen minutes just like all of the rehearsals.

Mister Allen finished taking his few notes on his notepad as Helen got up from her seat to congratulate the pair (mostly Freddie) with the rest of the audience already gathering around the pair congratulating them. "That was fantastic," she nearly shouted to the brunette pair. She laughed as she moved her hands about and continued, "The redhead flying all about, I really thought she could be an alien."

Tori nodded and put on her bright smile. "Thanks, we're glad you like it."

Helen laughed again as she replied, "I loved it. I know you two have to get an A on this."

Jade cracked a smile as she was standing off to the side of Tori and her boyfriend and saw that their teacher had heard the comment from Helen. She took the moment to revel in the idea that their teacher had just been back into a corner of having to give Freddie an A for the play as none of the teachers that she knew of had the spine to disagree with Helen other than some of the math and science teachers.

"Well I have to go. Great job," she praised them one last time then headed out of the theater with her blonde assistant faithfully trailing behind.

Freddie waved at her bye and called out, "Thanks for coming Miss Dubois."

Mister Allen finally approached the pair as the audience started to disperse and go on their way.

Tori grinned as she saw their teacher approach despite his stoic expression. "So what did you think?"

"I think it was an excellent play. I just need to double check a few things on your grading rubric to let you know for an exact number grade, but I have to agree with Principal Dubois; your play does deserve an A."

Tori's jaw dropped and let out a joyful laugh then suddenly turned to Freddie and hugged him. He smiled in return as he completely agreed with the sentiment and patted her on the back.

Jade suppressed a frown at the sight as even old habits were still dying hard.

There was a hint of irritation in the teacher's voice as he continued, "There is something I would like to say; you know you could have just come to me about re-performing your play. I wasn't going to hold what happened with Trina against you."

Before either Freddie or Tori could reply, Jade interrupted with a firm voice, "I'm the one that spoke to Helen."

Allen passed a glance to the dark brunette.

"I wasn't going to take that chance that you would be fair," she stressed and gave him an almost challenging expression with her eyes.

Allen gave a slight nod of his head and answered, "I see Miss West. I guess bad experiences with other teachers here could make you think that way." He looked back to Freddie and Tori with a smile. "It was a good play. I'll see you tomorrow."

Jade leaned over to Freddie as Mister Allen headed out of the theater and Tori started chatting with André and the rest. She whispered, "They loved it. See, you still got it."

Freddie laughed out softly. "I guess you're right. At least I know I'm good enough to help you on your film."

She laughed as she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck. "I never had any doubts," she whispered then kissed him. He was taken a little aback from the PDA, but apprehensively leaned back into the kiss as the corner of his eye caught Beck looking at them uncomfortably.

Guidance Counselor's Office  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Once again Freddie found himself sitting on the same worn couch in Lane's office with the guidance counselor slightly swinging in his wicker chair. The teenager wasn't exactly sure what he was going to accomplish in this 'session' as the other two hadn't been all that productive and he still wasn't eager in speaking about what the guidance counselor really want to discuss.

Lane rested his right elbow on his knee and clapped his hands together as he commented with a smile, "The play was a hit."

Freddie cracked a smile as well as he replied casually, "The audience seemed to enjoy it."

"I assume you got an A?"

Freddie replied confidently, "I know we got an A; Mister Allen is going to let me know the exact grade today. We're thinking about putting it on the Slap from all the audience reaction and word of mouth."

"You filmed it?"

"Jade convinced Sinjin to film it from the catwalk. He did a pretty good job of it from what I can tell from re-watching it last night."

Lane laughed for a moment. "You just might swamp the site. You still have a lot of fans plus the interest of seeing what you've been up too."

Freddie shrugged a shoulder. "We'll see. I'd have to talk the ones running theSlap, but if it's a problem, I'll just hook up my old server from iCarly. That'll handle any traffic coming through."

"Old server?"

"I got it about a year and a half ago to bump up the speed for the site, but I took it with me when I left. I wasn't going to let them have it."

Lane gave a half smile as he realized another thing he'd eventually get back to discuss with Freddie. "It was pretty nice of Mister Allen to let you put the show back on so soon,"

Freddie actually smiled back at him somewhat embarrassed. "It turns out he was, but that's not why we could go a head and try again… Jade talked to Principal Dubois Friday afternoon to make sure it would happen. She felt gui—" Freddie stopped himself as he realized he was about to talk to Lane about Jade.

Lane slightly looked down at his other knee with a hint of disappointment from Freddie once again avoiding talking about his relationship with Jade. "I wanted to talk about what happened that afternoon—"

The former Tech-Producer instantly put his guard up as he answered, "I'm not apologizing for leaving. I had to get to work and you just had to admit it was an accident anyway."

Lane shook his head. "No, not about that. I wanted to talk about something Jade said."

Freddie immediately frowned. "When are you going to understand that I'm not talking about Jade?"

"It's not just about Jade that I want to talk about, but about Carly and Sam and why you're here instead of in Seattle. It looked to me that you were about to talk about how they may have been partially responsible for you leaving Seattle before you got up and left. It really concerns me now with what I heard Friday afternoon. Jade said she broke a few of Sam's ribs… she said she had to take you to the hospital."

Freddie clenched his mouth shut for a moment as he remembered Jade's outburst at Tori. The brown eye teenager replied in a guarded whisper, "Yes she did."

"Which part? Her breaking Sam's ribs or having to take you to the hospital from what she said Sam did to you?"

"Both."

Lane raised an eyebrow and motioned with his right hand to Freddie, "Is that why you don't want to talk about anything? Are you afraid of Jade getting into trouble?"

Freddie snorted out dismissively, "If I was, do you think I would really answer that?"

Lane pursed his lips and glanced down at the table from Freddie pointing out the problem with his question. "Why did Sam want to hurt you?"

The Seattle native answered instinctively, "Other than her hatred of me? I finally called her out on how she's nothing but a mean bitch."

Lane was taken aback from the answer as that wasn't something he expected Freddie to say. "Isn't that a little harsh to say about your friend?"

Freddie snapped, "She's not my friend and it's the truth."

"Could you tell me why you think so?"

Freddie remained silent as he gave the counselor a dark look.

"Freddie, I don't know what your life was in Seattle, that's why I'm asking."

Freddie got up from his seat and started pacing the room. He finally stopped as he looked out the window. He still had his doubts about Lane, but he had none with Jade and that's probably why he answered the gentleman's question, "I don't know why Sam hates me only that she does. Ever since I've known her, she's made it a point to make my life miserable. Any chance to hurt me, she would take it: an insult here, a chance to embarrass me or humiliate there and that was between the physical beatings."

"She would beat you?"

"An out and out beating was rare, but she had no problem hitting me or kicking me or pushing me into something dangerous. She one time broke a tennis racket over my head, nearly broke my arm then threw me out of a two story tree house in the span of about five minutes."

Lane lifted his head up and opened his eyes widely at the revelation. "What did Carly say about it? Did she know?"

Freddie turned his head sharply and nearly growled out, "Of course she knew. She watched it happen most of the time. Heck, the tree house incident she agreed with it because I was getting in the way of her precious webshow."

Lane folded his arms over his knees as he thought on the ramifications of that answer and how it fit with all the other pieces he had learned over the course of the last two weeks. However, he couldn't deal with everything all at once. "Let's focus on Sam for a moment: she was allowed to treat you that way by others?"

"Yep, no one ever told her no or punished her for it. I was a free target. It wouldn't have mattered; Carly would have just bailed her out of it as she always did when Sam would get into any serious trouble."

"Did you ever talk to Sam about it?"

Freddie turned and leaned against the same short cabinet Robbie had sat on last Friday during their 'interrogation'. "Once, and it was just as effective as when a girl asks her boyfriend not to hit her."

Lane had experience with girls coming into his office being on the end of an abusive relationship, both emotionally and physically, but never with a male student. It was new territory for him. "Was that the reason you're here? You just didn't see any other way out of it?"

"_One _of many reasons why I'm here. I couldn't exactly hit her back. Hitting a girl in self-defense isn't a good enough reason; you've still hit a girl. You're still the bad guy if you do that, but a wimp if you allow it to happen or complain about it to others. You're damned either way and quite frankly it got to the point where I was conditioned to accept that as acceptable behavior… Carly thought so too for whatever reason."

"Is that why Jade fought Sam at some point? Those problems aren't there when two girls fight it out?"

"No, I was going to fight her that night or she would have really hurt me, but Jade… I'll let you use your imagination," he finished with a smirk. Freddie was still only going to go so far with his discussion with Lane and that did not include Jade if possible. His smirk left him and replaced with a frown as he started thinking back to all the abuse he had suffered from Sam. Oh how his caring for her could be so overshadowed and corruptive all because she couldn't behave herself.

Lane took a deep breath as he watched the teenager apparently start reliving some memories. "Freddie… being angry at what happened to you is a normal response and what is important is how you deal with that anger. I can tell just by the way you sound in speaking about Sam and Carly and some of your behavior I've observed, that some of it has already turned into resentment and becoming defensive—"

Freddie was about to speak when Lane raised a hand so he could finish his point, "I'm not judging you; I'm simply making an assessment. It sounds like you have a lot of things you need to work out and a long way to go to be truly happy. I'd still like to help you."

"You want this to become a regular thing for us?"

"It's not about what I want, but what you need. I'm making a leap here, but once you cut through all the reasons why you left or the reasons to stay or the events that led you here, the core reason you're here is that you want to be happy. You can't be really happy until you deal with your past. Not whitewash it or bury it or just hate it, but come to some form of peace that the past is the past and there is nothing you can do to change it."

Freddie lowered his head and looked to his feet. The guidance counselor's points hit on target in his mind and couldn't escape the logic of his argument. When it came down to it he was here to be happy with hopefully Jade being part of the equation that made up being happy. He pushed off the short cabinet and replied, "I guess I'll see you next time?"

Lane smiled happily at the thought that he had finally made a little headway with Freddie. "Yeah."

Freddie turned to head to the door, but Lane spoke up, "In the meantime, don't let go off all of the good you remember from Seattle just to get rid of the bad."

Freddie stopped and nodded. "I'll think about it." He turned and was about to head out the door when he called over his shoulder, "I better not find any of this on-line." He then headed out for Mister Allen's class without waiting for a reply.

'_Okay, emphasis on the little,'_ crossed Lane's mind.

Hollywood Arts  
>Wednesday, September 21, 2011<p>

Freddie was gathering his books from his now light-blue painted locker before meeting up with Jade in the Black Box to rehearse for her short-film. After school yesterday and taking whatever free time he had this morning, he finally decided on how to decorate his locker. He was quite happy with the result.

However, his alluring girlfriend decided not to wait for him as she approached from his left side with a little eagerness in her step that he read as being slightly irritable.

"Hey," she greeted with a slightly forced smile, but keeping most of her irritation out of her voice.

"Hey. Couldn't wait for me could you?" he asked with a hint of laughter in his voice.

She cocked her head to the side and slightly frowned. "Maybe, Cat's waiting for us in the Black Box."

"Okay, just let me grab one last thing," he answered as he looked for a particular book.

While he was reaching for his last book, Jade noticed that the trimming of the locker was a shade of light-blue as opposed to the standard grey as she couldn't see the locker cover itself because she was on his left and looking on the inside of the locker and door. Jade motioned her hand towards the locker and stated with a hint of confusion in her voice, "You finally decorated your locker?"

He grinned at her as he put his last book away in his book bag. "Yes I did, see," he answered and shut the door to show the blue painted locker cover.

She blinked and paused for a moment to process what she was seeing. She finally whispered out, still unsure why it was decorated in that particular manner. "You painted it solid blue?"

"Yes… the same color as my locker at Ridgeway and…" He pointed at the locker number plate at the top of the door. "I gave it a little gold plate with my old locker's number on it."

Jade pursed her lips for a moment and blinked as she tried to figure out why he would do such a thing. "Why?"

He threw his book back under his arm and over his head for the strap to lie across his chest then answered, "Lane helped me realize a little that I need to let go of the bad stuff… however hard that really is to do, but not the good stuff. My locker was mine at school and no one else's and wasn't tainted by any bad memories. Besides, it kind of stands out from the rest… its simplicity is its uniqueness."

Jade gave him a happy smirk and slight a nod of her head, grateful that Lane was apparently helping Freddie. "I'm glad you're happy with it."

"Yeah, I am."

The two just smiled at one another for a few more brief moments until the sound of her phone beeping to let her know that she received a text message pulled them out of their mutual gazing of one another. She quickly reached into her Gears-of-War book bag and retrieved her phone.

Jade rolled her eyes as she answered the text.

Freddie asked with a slight, humorous snort, "Another message from Beck?"

"Yeah," she replied with a slight frown and started typing with her thumbs.

Freddie grinned and let out a soft breath. "Okay, that's the last one for the rest of the afternoon. You can start your text fighting back up after you're done with your rehearsal," he commented with a soft laugh as he lopped his arm with her arm and led the distracted teenager to the Black Box.

She barely acknowledged him with a nod of her head as she continued to text away.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: Hello my dear readers and a happy Friday to you. I hope you enjoy this installment. Thanks for reading and reviewing.**

**Jeremy: Freddie's not vindictive towards them… not yet or ever, but he doesn't need Nevel to sabotage anything. Their ratings are down since Freddie left anyway.**

**Oh, and spoilers for Tori Tortures Teacher**

* * *

><p>Chapter 7<p>

Sikowitz's Advance Acting Class  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Thursday, September 22, 2011<p>

The majority of the class was already inside the classroom waiting for Sikowitz to arrive on the sunny Thursday morning.

As Freddie was waiting with the others for the class to being, he relaxed and leaned back in his chair as he tried to ignore the continuing 'argument' by text message between his girlfriend sitting to his right and her ex-boyfriend to her right.

Jade had a frown on her face as Beck held up his phone after hearing the peep that he had received a text message. Beck read over the message quickly then blinked. He turned to ask Jade in a loud voice, "What? Really?"

Jade smirked and spared him a glance then she looked to the front of the classroom.

"Alright, okay," he answered with a hint of annoyance in his voice. Beck started texting quickly then Jade's phone beeped.

She looked down to her phone and quickly read off the message. She looked up and stared angrily at her former boyfriend and snapped, "What? What?" She shook her head in disgust and started typing again on her phone as she asked in a harsh tone, "Okay, you want to go there?"

André and Tori entered the classroom from the door beside the small stage. The stopped at seeing the former couple apparently fighting. André looked to Tori and commented, "I wonder what they are text fighting about."

They looked to Freddie and the brown eye teenager raised his hands, "I am letting them work it out and staying out of it unless he says something I have to punch him in the face for."

Jade looked up from her phone with a surprised expression to look at the brown eye teenager while Beck turned his head to look past Jade to see a still relaxing Freddie.

Freddie may have kept his eyes focused on Tori and André, but he was addressing Beck as he casually continued, "You heard me."

Beck waited sending another text for a moment to decide how or if he wanted to send the response he was thinking about sending to Jade. He slid his phone back in his pocket as he glanced to Freddie and the former Seattleite just eyed him with an even expression for a moment. Beck had wondered when Freddie was going to express his feelings about he and his ex's back and forth discussion or bickering or however one wished to describe how they were communicating. Now he knew what those feelings were for the more muscular teenager: a line drawn in the sand. He would be allowed only to go so far before he would have to deal with Freddie. A part of him dreaded the possibility because of the fallout while another part was eager for a confrontation.

The Tori and André looked to one another for a brief moment then decided to take their seats in the other section of seats as they thought it best not to get involved.

The bubbly redhead entered the room from the stage door softly giggling to herself.

Tori greeted her with a friendly voice, "Hi Cat."

"Hi everyone," Cat greeted that class. "Knock knock."

Robbie answered, "Who there?"

"Isn't?"

Rex asked with a jerk of his head, "Isn't who?"

Cat laughed and waved as she took a seat, "Isn't life amazing? I know."

Freddie actually briefly smiled at the innocence of Cat's view of life, but felt a ting of regret at the same time.

Sikowitz entered the classroom through the door beside the stage carrying a box of apparently a coffeemaker. He sat the box down in his chair and greeted his class in a cheerful tone, "Good morning people or they say in Guatemala …" he finished in Spanish.

Tori raised an eyebrow and countered with mild shock, "That means a turtle ate my wife."

"Well that's sad, but hilarious," he finished laughing and pointing at Tori.

Robbie asked indicated with a slight nod of his head towards the box, "Hey, what you got there?"

André followed in an instant, "Yeah, what you got there?"

Rex finished for the trio, "What you got there?

Sikowitz motioned towards the box. "This is a one cup coffee maker, a gift to me from our esteemed principal."

André asked curiously, "What is it? Your birthday or something?"

Sikowitz smiled as he answered, "My anniversary, ten years teaching at Hollywood Arts."

The class clapped for a few moments and he gave a nod of his head in appreciation.

Tori's brow furled as she asked, "Wait, it is your ten year anniversary teaching here and they gave you a one cup coffee maker?"

The acting teacher walked over to coffeemaker box and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, it may not be much, but as they say…" Sikowitz spoke another line of Spanish.

Freddie called out with a confused expression on his face, "That means I forgot to wear underwear."

Sikowitz gave a curious expression. "Are you sure?" He took a peek down his pants then answered his own question, "Oh, it does."

The rest of the class looked in shock from his confession.

Guidance Counselor's Office  
>Thursday, September 22, 2011<p>

Freddie lay across the worn couch with his feet propped up on the armrest. He figured if these were becoming like therapy sessions, he might as well play up the stereotype of a patient getting his head shrunk.

Lane shook his head and palmed his chin with a smile. "How are you doing Freddie?"

Freddie shrugged a shoulder as he stared at the ceiling. "I feel fine. I got a ninety-eight on my play. My classes are going fine." Freddie grinned as he continued, "I found out that I needed to learn how to play an instrument, so André is sparing some time once a week to teach me how to play the guitar." He gave a soft laugh as he finished, "What teenage guy wouldn't want to learn how to play the guitar and impress the ladies?"

Lane nodded as he brought his hand from his chin and rested his elbow on his knee. "That sounds like fun… so everything _is_ going fine?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't it?"

Lane shrugged a shoulder slightly and answered in a cautious tone, "I've heard that Jade and Beck have been ah… fighting for the last few days. I would think that would bother you a little."

Freddie focused his eyes on a particular ceiling tile as he slightly frowned. "Why would it bother me? They're friends and they have a history together. They need to still work things… feelings out I guess. I'm not really sure _what_ they're talking about."

"Other's might be jealous that their girlfriend is talking so much with their ex."

Freddie cracked a smile. "I'm not other guys. I'm glad they're talking. I'm glad they're still friends." His pleasant expression turned to snorting out somewhat of a snark, "I'm not even on speaking terms with Carly."

Lane took a deep breath as he rocked back slightly in the swinging chair. _Finally getting to the heart of things._ "Do you wish you were?"

Freddie turned his head to look at the guidance counselor with a curious expression.

"Do you wish you were doing the same thing with Carly as what Jade and Beck are doing?"

Freddie blew out a quick breath. "There's nothing to salvage. After years of supposed friendship, she finally openly admits to me she doesn't care about me when it really matters. Our friendship was just one big act of manipulating me into doing what she wanted me to do. It's not the case between Jade and Beck. They may have their problems, but underneath it all, Jade _loves_ Beck and it's safe to assume that Beck still _loves_ Jade."

Lane took a deep breath and sat up straighter in his wicker chair. He had two big issues presented to him to help Freddie deal with in one statement. "So does that bother you that Jade is still in love with Beck even though she is with you?"

The brown eye teenager chuckled, "Not talking about that."

Lane pointed a finger at him. "You brought it up."

"You asked me about Carly and Beck. I only confirmed something about Jade you already know or should know. It's not an opening for you to pry into my relationship."

Lane took a slow breath at Freddie's stonewalling again in regards to Jade, but what Freddie did admit actually troubled him further as it appeared to be a confirmation of what he had been fearing since he first talked to Freddie in these sessions: Freddie was rebounding with Jade and using her as a way to escape his problems than deal with them.

"Okay, how do you feel about Carly? Right now, right at this moment. I also know about the whole Creddie thing, so…"

Freddie turned his head back to direct his gaze back at that same particular ceiling tile. "How do I feel about Carly?" He remained silent for a few moments. He spoke in a soft tone as if he was afraid of breaking the silence, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.… I pushed Carly out of the way of a taco truck during last year's Martin Luther King, Junior weekend. The truck clipped me. I messed up my right hand and wrist pretty good. I broke my left leg and a good hit to the head that cut my forehead. Rehab was Hell, but it paid off… there are still times that I feel a hint of pain in my left knee. I was lucky. Head on would have killed Carly… I could have died for her that day… I would have died for her."

Lane blew out a breath. "That's… not many teenagers have to face a choice like that."

Freddie cracked a small smile as he whispered back, "I'm just lucky that way."

Lane let the silence hang for a moment as he watched the teenager process what he had spoken. "What about now?"

"I still love her, but… my head knows it would never work… just wish my heart would go ahead and figure that out."

"Heartbreaks are never easy," he tried to console the teenager.

"She's been breaking my heart for the last four years… she finally shattered it months ago. I didn't lose out to another guy… I lost out to Sam… I wonder if Sam will ever realize how much she is loved by Carly."

Lane pursed his lips for a moment and clamped his hands together for a moment.

"Does Jade know that?"

Freddie turned his head and gave the counselor a curious expression. "About what?"

"Your feelings for Carly?"

Freddie debated whether to answer the question then finally responded, "Yes she does."

"So you're each in love with someone else, but dating each other?"

Freddie lifted his feet off of the arm rest and twisted around to have a seat on the couch. He rested his forearms on his knees and looked Lane straight in the eyes. He answered in a challenging tone, "So?"

Lane leaned his head back slightly and gave Freddie a surprised expression. "So? You are apparently rebounding with each other. Is that the real reason you don't want to talk about it? You don't want to face that fact."

"This is why I am not talking about my relationship with Jade with you: You are making assumptions and judgments about it when you know nothing about it."

"I know nothing about it because you won't tell me anything. I have nothing left but to make assumptions from what little you will share."

"Why is it so important that you know about it?"

"It's important because I don't want you to run away from your problems by getting into a rebound relationship with Jade and the same with her."

Freddie replied incredulously, "We're not co-dependent on each other. We have separate lives from each other."

"Isn't that a little hard since you're living with her?"

The former Tech-Producer frowned and snapped back, "I do not _live with her_. I rent a separate room from Mrs. West. _I rent a room. _"

"Okay… you live in the same house—"

"With separate rooms that belong to us as individuals. We have our separate spaces. We share a kitchen and the living room and that's it. I even have my own bathroom. Jade and I do not co-habitat with one another, something me and Mrs. West readily agreed on."

Freddie got up from his seat and continued in a harsh tone, "I am not taking advantage of Jade and she's not taking advantage of me." He turned and headed for the door. "I think we've accomplished all we're going to today. I need to get to Mister Allen's class." He stopped at the door for a moment and whispered over his shoulder, "Oh, I'm dealing with my problems by talking to you and she's talking to Beck. So we aren't running from anything."

The next moment he was out the door.

"Maybe not running, but sure walking," Lane mumbled.

Melrose's Playhouse  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Friday, September 23, 2011

The group of Hollywood Art students minus Cat and Trina along with their teacher made their way to around the stadium seating and their front and second row seats in the theater.

As Beck rounded the corner around the end of the seats, he pointed to his phone and called out to Jade, "What? Sorry what?"

Jade shook her head with a smirk as she stopped to stand right in front of her seat. "You read me," Jade answered confidently. The pair looked to one another for a moment before each taking their seats with one left vacant between them for Freddie.

The rest were trailing behind the former couple and André took the opportunity to gently take Freddie's arm to stop him to ask, "Aren't you afraid their text fighting is going to get out a hand?"

Freddie looked to Beck as the former couple took their seats. "No, I already told him I'd punch him if he said something that went too far."

André grimaced for a moment then commented, "Both of you are my buddies and I'd hate to see you get in a fight."

Freddie took a quick breath, but let it out slowly as he admitted, "Me too… but I will defend my girlfriend. You'd do the same if someone said something to Tori."

The L.A. native smiled somewhat embarrassed as he responded, "But Tori's not my girlfriend."

Freddie smirked. "You're splitting hairs Harris."

The songsmith blinked at the answer as Freddie left him standing there to take the seat between Jade and Beck.

Freddie looked to Beck as he got comfortable in his seat and stated, "Whatever you are going to text back, save it until after the show." He opened up his program and started reading overview of the play.

Beck apparently took his advice as he put his phone up and opened up his own program.

Jade folded her hands in her lap and remained quiet.

Sikowitz smiled as he took a seat. "Well I must say it is extremely kind of you teenagers to take me to the theater like this."

André had brushed away Freddie's comment and took his seat beside the acting teacher. He spoke enthusiastically, "You deserve this after ten years of being a teacher."

"Thank you sir. So, what is this play about?" the acting teacher inquired as he opened up his program to give it a quick glance over.

Tori opened her own program as she took a seat beside him, "I'm not even sure."

"Ah," Robbie started then finished glancing over the inside page, "It is about an artist that faces a major life crisis."

"Ah, all the plays here are top newtch," Sikowitz commented offhandedly as he continued to read over the paper in his hands.

"Notch," Robbie corrected.

"I say newtch," he responded without missing a beat.

He looked to Tori, "Try it."

"What me?" she asked surprised at the request.

"Come on, newtch," he encouraged the brunette.

"Newtch," Tori replied as she glanced away from her program.

"Newtch, huh? See, it feels good." He motioned behind him to the rest of his students. "All my students try it."

"Newtch," a chorus came from his students as they exchanged curious glances with one another.

The acting teacher motioned his hands to the rest of the audience, "Now everybody."

"Newtch," the audience joined in repeating.

"Huh hun," Sikowitz nodded with a smile in the confirmation of his belief saying newtch felt good.

"I had dreams, doing something special with my life, but now I'm just a high school teacher. Worthless loser, fettering my days away in a stupid classroom with a bunch of snot nosed teenagers. That's no life for a man."

Tori grimaced at hearing the dialogue and passing a quick glance towards Sikowitz.

The acting teacher returned her glance with a polite smile. Sikowitz felt the vibration of his phone silently ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket and opened up the flip phone to look at the screen. He quickly frowned after his eyes scanned the screen.

"Look at teaching as a temporary thing," the other character suggested.

"It's been ten years Randy. Ten years watching my friends having rewarding lives while I'm nothing but a stinking high school teacher."

Jade leaned forward and over Tori's shoulder to whisper, "Great play Tori. Good call."

She whispered back in a harsh tone, "I didn't know."

"At least you're not bald."

Jade looked down and palmed her forehead.

Sikowitz sat his program down on the floor and walked out of the theater as one of the actors spoke, "Mike, dude, come on buddy…"

Make-up Room  
>Hollywood Arts<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Saturday, September 24, 2011<p>

Jade blew out a breath and relaxed back in the Tuscany makeup chair wearing a silky blue robe. She had already flattened her hair and put it up so that she could put the wig on along with her costume. In the meantime, she just had to trust the smiling redhead in front of her holding her makeup brushes to do as good a job as she did on the costuming. The dark brunette whispered softly, yet firmly, "Cat, remember: _don't_ make me look adorable."

"I know," she answered with a soft laugh.

The dark brunette gave her an even expression.

"I'm going to make you look… 'scary sexy'?" she asked with a furled brow.

Jade smirked at hearing that phrase. "Exactly, scary sexy is what you are going for. All you have to do is apply it the same as we practiced."

Cat laughed as she nodded and brought the first brush up to Jade's face. "Okay."

Black Box Theater

Freddie blew out a nervous breath with a smile as he entered the theater dragging along with him his silver hard-shell luggage case. In the case was a last piece of equipment as everything else had already been set up: the set, the lighting, and one of the school's higher end cameras along with his laptop ready to film to name a few of the necessities.

He would admit to himself that he was finally nervous at putting on the production. Broadcasting iCarly had been second nature to him years ago and he may have wanted to prove something with Tori and his play, but he didn't feel any nervousness about its production, but he was feeling a little apprehensive about this one. He really didn't want anything to mess up Jade's film. He really wanted this to be perfect for her, so he was determined to put his all into it. In the back of his mind scratched the thought that not too long ago he would have done the same for another brunette. Another part of his mind shouted, _'Things change.'_

He shook that thought away as he approached Sinjin double checking the connection of the camera with the laptop resting on a small rectangular table standing in the center of the audience area. The brown eye teenager gave the taller curly haired teenager a pat on the shoulder and asked, "We set?"

Sinjin turned his head slightly and nodded back with a grin. "All set. Lighting and sound effects are set up through the remote." He held up a rectangular control not all that different than Sam's trademark remote he had rigged up years ago. "The controls are hooked up how you marked them for the remote."

Freddie nodded in acknowledgement as he lifted the carryon bag onto two of the grey metal chairs set off to the side of the table. As he unzipped the bag/container, Sinjin asked curiously, "Freddie, controlling all the stuff is kind of complicated and I have to say a pain, so I'm wondering, why set it up that way? Why aren't we using the rest of the crew to handle each thing? Why just us?"

The former Tech-Producer about to turn into a current one, looked over his shoulder and replied, "Well, that's just the way I'm use to it. I didn't have a top notch tech crew backing me up when I was doing iCarly or our short-films. Everything really was up to me and I had to do it remotely and second…" He trailed off unsure if he really wanted to tell him.

"And?"

Freddie turned to face the taller teenager. He cocked an eyebrow as he asked, "Honestly?"

The curly haired teenager gave a nod and a curious expression.

Freddie blew out a breath as he replied, "Because they creep me out the way they were eyeing the female cast when they had to pass through sometimes during rehearsals… for the sole fact to look at the female cast."

Sinjin frowned.

Freddie lowered his head slightly and asked with a hint of disbelief, "What? You didn't notice the way they were looking at Ava? And what exactly was that stain of on that shirt you gave to Tori the time she was on your tech crew?"

"Never mind," the curly haired teenager replied and turned away to double check his camera. He quickly focused on the task at hand, "Okay, camera is set and we are ready to go when they are."

Freddie raised a quick finger as he interrupted, "Actually, we're going to use an additional camera." He turned back to the case and fully opened it. There was a playful grin on his face as he picked up the old workhorse of a camera he had used for years on iCarly. He whispered to himself, "Hello old friend."

Sinjin's jaw dropped as he pointed at the camera in the more muscular teenager's hands. "Is that _the_ camera?"

"What?" Freddie turned his head and asked in a sharp tone.

"The one you used on iCarly?"

Freddie answered in a slow tone, "Yep."

"Can I hold it?" Sinjin asked almost like a child that just saw a new toy he desperately wanted.

Freddie cracked a smile. "Later, let me set up for a second camera. We just have a few hours to get this done."

"Okay," Sinjin answered and brought his camera up ready to go as soon as the cast walked on stage.

"Are you ready?" Freddie heard Jade call out from behind him.

Freddie looked up from the laptop and the camera as he answered, "Almost, I just have to—" Freddie stopped as he saw Jade standing in the center of the forested set.

Freddie swallowed nervously as he saw the teenager in the mixed Renaissance and Gothic style dress. _A darker interpretation of Snow White indeed._

Jade was wearing a black wig of various knotted braids and a red bow tied in the hair. Her face was made up with light blue eyeliner and ruby red lipstick with just a touch more makeup to really enhance her naturally pale complexion for the 'Snow White' effect. The top half of the dress consisted of a form fitted, dark blue leather bodice with spaghetti straps going across her collarbone and behind her neck and allowing a nice view of her cleavage. On her shoulders were blue, puffy shoulders with red streaks just like the traditional Dingo Studios interpretation of Snow White. However, they were not actually attached to the dress, but held on with tide red ribbons around her upper arms. If he wasn't mistaken, underneath the three to four separate pieces of silky and nearly transparent gold and burgundy veils that made up the skirt, she was wearing black boy-shorts.

He tried several times to clear his throat as he eyed his girlfriend.

The pale actress gave him a knowing smile. She walked to him to invade his personal space and leaned forward as if to whisper into his left ear so he was the only one that could hear her. He could smell the faint perfume she had dabbed on her neck and feel her soft breath tickle his cheek. "Why Freddie Benson, is that lust in your eyes?" she asked in a delicate tone, and a playful smirk.

Freddie gulped like a fish out of water for a moment then cleared his throat. In a thick voice, he whispered back, "Maybe?"

She smirked triumphantly as he reacted in the exact way she had hoped. She pulled away and took a moment to bring her fingertips nearly to her mouth, but stopped just short of smearing her lipstick then blew a kiss towards Freddie. She looked to the rest of the cast (made up of ninth and tenth graders other than Ava as Freddie had suggested to Jade that she give them the same chance she was trying for herself) and shouted as she took over her role as director, "Alright people, you know what we need to get done. Take your places just like we rehearsed."

Freddie blinked as he brought the old workhorse up and used the rarely used shoulder brace to steady the camera as he didn't trust his hands to hold it freely. He spared a glance to Sinjin and noticed the teenager apparently just as rattled, but that didn't last long… it actually got a little worst when he saw Ava step on to the set wearing a more traditional medieval outfit of a stately queen. The normally sweet girl apparently was going to enjoy her role as an evil queen and winked at Sinjin before taking her place on set.

Freddie blew out a breath as he mentally patted Cat on the back for the job she did on the costumes and makeup and he was betting Sinjin was doing the same… if his brain was functioning to that capacity.

* * *

><p>Ava looked up vacantly up at the ceiling, the center of her dress covered with Hollywood blood. Jade was sitting in a chair and across from a framed silver sheet to represent a mirror. She looked down on the slain queen with a wicked grin on her face. She picked up a ruby red apple from a bowl on the table and covered with a dripping red, sugary liquid that represented the blood of the wicked stepmother of a queen and licked some of it off of it with the tip of her tongue then took a bit out of the apple.<p>

She looked to the mirror and finished chewing and swallowing the piece of juicy apple. She took a moment to lick some of the syrup off of her other index finger then whispered in a seductive manner, "Mirror, mirror… on the wall… who is still the fairest one of them all?"

The curtain suddenly closed on the scene.

**Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this installment. Yes, I was inspired by the Elizabeth Gillies Viva Glitter Viva Glamour photo shoot by Melanie Mills. Oh, and just to remind you who in the world Ava is, she's just one of the background extras I gave a name. You can actually see her sitting behind Tori in Tori Tortures Teacher in the opening scene. She's the one with the blue T-Shirt and Hollywood Arts pattern on the front. Useless bit of information.**


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: Hello everyone. Sorry for the lateness of this chapter, but I wanted to do some additional tweaking and editing of it in addition to working on iDon't Want to Wake Up. Thanks for reading and reviewing.

Also, Snapplelinz has started a new story. It is a Victorious story titled: Keep on Running, Tori. You should check it out and give her a review after you finish reading this installment.

Rating reminder: T for Adult Themes for this chapter.

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><p>Chapter 8<p>

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Saturday, September 24, 2011

Freddie relaxed in his chair as he was in front of his computer and taking a sip of his drink with one hand and editing on Jade's film with his mouse. He sat his tea down and leaned forward as he was debating on how to put the next scene together with his and Sinjin's shots. After wrapping up filming around five that afternoon and taking a lot of photos with everyone in costume, he started working with the raw footage from his and Sinjin's camera without bothering to change, barely taking the time to eat and despite how exhausted he felt. He hadn't even bothered to wipe the remnant of lipstick off his left cheek when Jade while still in costume had kissed him during one of the photos.

He was so involved to at least get a good start on putting the film together that he didn't hear his door part open then closed shut with the lock clicking. He was finally pulled out of his concentration from Jade coming up from behind him and rested her chin on his right shoulder while wrapping her arms around his shoulders and rested her clasped hands over his left shoulder. "You're already editing it?"

Freddie turned his head to meet her blue shaded eyes and smirked as he replied with a soft laugh, "I call it Frediting, but what can I say? You inspired me."

She snorted out a soft laugh then kissed his right cheek, but not leaving any remains as she had washed all the makeup off.

Freddie arced an eyebrow as he asked, "You really found that funny?"

She squinted a little bit and raised a corner of her mouth. "Maybe a little adorable."

He grinned then looked back to the monitor.

The dark brunette sighed out playfully with a roll of her eyes before pulling away from him.

He instantly missed the sensation and was about to turn to face her, but she saved him the trouble by turning the chair around to face her. He took a quick glance to see that she had changed into a blue V-neck T-shirt and some black short cotton shorts.

The former Tech-Producer looked up to meet her eyes as she rested her palms at the end of the armrests as she stared back into his eyes. "You have plenty of time to do that."

Freddie cleared his throat as if the proximity of her was touching sensation along with her vanilla and mint scent.

"Thank you… for getting me to realize that there are… other ways to…" she trailed off as she looked at his warm eyes and couldn't find the words to explain what meant.

He grinned in return as he finished, "To let the world see you? You're welcome."

They held their gazes on one another for a few moments before Jade bit her bottom lip softly decided to crawl up and straddled his lap. She wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and lowered her head capture his lips with her mouth. Freddie was only caught off for a moment then tilted his head up slightly to meet the eagerness of her kiss and rest his hands on her bare thighs on either side of his legs. Their lips melded slowly together with her running her tongue over his top lip between kisses along with her hips instinctively starting to gyrate against him to elicit a primal growl from deep in Freddie's throat.

She growled into his mouth as well as the sensation traveled up her spine and the base of her skull was more pronounced from the friction between her and her cotton shorts against his jeans.

His hands glided across her bare thighs to come to rest on her hips then lifted her up as he stood up. She wrapped her legs around his waist as they continued kissing and he carried her to his bed. Once he reached the edge, he gently laid her down on the soft mattress.

He kissed down the left side of her neck while taking extra time on her pulse point then traveled back up to kiss her jaw line before reaching to nibble on her earlobe for a moment. He whispered in her ear in a hushed by slightly humorous twist tone, "You _were_ very lust inducing today."

A wicked grin appeared on her face as she closed her eyes then kissed his left cheekbone and tighten her legs around him to feel his weight against her. His right hand ran down over her hip while his thumb caught the elastic band of her shorts and sliding it just off her hip bone as he went down to cup the back of her thigh.

Her left hand danced down his left shoulder blade then slid between his arm and abdomen. Her delicate hand slid under his T-shirt and palmed over his abs as their trading kisses became needier and deeper. Her breath started getting shorter from Freddie stealing her breath with their kissing and the growing sensation forming in her lower abdomen as she held him close and grinding against him.

The dark brunette's hand slid further down until she reached the waist of his jeans and her fingertips started trying to undo the button.

Freddie pulled his mouth away and cleared his throat as he looked into her eyes.

She looked back with a curious expression as she saw a look of apprehension in his soft brown eyes, but there was something different about it than the first time they were in this position that she didn't know how to attempt to comprehend. A few seconds passed until she realized that he really didn't want to go that far. The realization chilled her down as much as if her mother had come through the door and threw a bucket of ice water on them.

He saw the frown and something akin to, but deeper than disappointment in her eyes for a moment before kissing her cheek then whispering, "Sorry?"

She nodded and gave him a weak and hopefully understanding smile.

He rolled to his side as she unlocked her legs to rest on his side, but pulled her to keep her close.

They lay there for another hour cuddling and trading kisses as they enjoyed the other's presence, but Jade couldn't help but feel a slight ache in her chest as she lay with her brown eye boy.

Hollywood Arts  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Monday, September 26, 2011

"Man, Sikowitz is ten minutes late," Rex complained as Robbie held up the puppet's arm so he could read his watch. The rest of the class had been patiently waiting for the acting teacher to show up except for Tori who had been pacing back and forth in front of the classroom entrance beside the stage.

"Where is he?" Tori asked in concern as she stepped away from the stage classroom entrance.

Jade spoke up in a sarcastic tone as during this late morning she had little patience for the light brunette, "Maybe he locked himself in a dark closet because you forced him go see a play that made his life seem like a big fat pile of garbage."

Tori frowned at the dark brunette.

Jade returned with an even expression. "I'm going to have a banana."

Tori was about to respond, but was interrupted with Freddie turning his head to Jade and asking with a hint of concern and confusion, "But you don't like bananas."

Jade gave a slight frown then looked away from him as she started pealing her banana.

Freddie frowned and turned his attention to Beck with a harsh glare. He directed his words at the actor, but made sure he was loud enough for everyone in the room to hear him, "We _are_ talking about _this_ after school."

Beck was taken aback for a moment at the apparent challenge and Jade looked to the brown eye teenager with evident concern on her face to see the determined expression on Freddie's face.

Tori swallowed nervously having all but forgotten about Sikowitz and looked to André for a moment hoping that the songsmith could play mediator between the pair.

André looked back opening his mouth, but refrained from speaking as he was unsure about what to say.

Robbie laughed nervously to try to break the tension, "You know ah, monkeys peal their bananas from the bottom."

Rex popped up, "Man, did you just sit there and think to yourself, 'Hey, what would an idiot say right now?', and that's what you say?"

Freddie rolled his eyes, but didn't get to say anything as Sikowitz finally arrived with dragging himself into the classroom.

Sikowitz dropped his bag and sat on the top step of the platform then dropped his head into his hands and made a sound mixed between a wail and a grunt.

Cat waved and whispered, "Hi."

"Hey," Tori greeted cheerfully.

He lifted his head and answered in a tired and lazy voice, "Hi."

André smiled and in a flattering manner spoke, "So Sikowitz, what are you going to teach us today? I mean, I don't know what to expect, but I bet it is going to be fantastic."

"Huh?" Sikowitz was managing to speak.

"We are ready to learn," Cat spoke up happily.

"Yeah, okay… Tori and… Elvis," he patted the stage and finished, "Get up on the stage thing."

"Okay," Tori answered with a hesitant smile.

"Sure," Beck answered with a perplexed expression.

Freddie cracked a smile and ran a hand over his mouth and chin from the Elvis description of Beck.

The pair walked on stage and Tori nervously asked, "Alright, what do you want us to do?"

Sikowitz looked away and spoke in a detached voice, "Um, a scene. You both have the same line: Life is pain… so you just keep saying that to each other over and over, do it, action."

Tori glanced to Beck for a second then repeated the line with a hint of regret and embarrassment, "Life is pain."

"Life is pain," Beck replied and waved to Sikowitz.

"It certainly is. Ding, there's the bell, class dismissed," he answered halfway through a cry then headed out and fell out the window beside the stage.

Jade looked to Tori with an annoyed expression and commented sarcastically, "Way to go Tori, you broke Sikowitz."

"I did not break Sikowitz—"

Sikowitz moaned out just outside of the window interrupting the brunette.

Tori started again, "I did not break Sikowitz—"

He moaned one more time.

She brought her right hand and grabbed some of her hair on the side of her head and admitted in defeat, "I broke Sikowitz."

The acting teacher continued to moan outside the window.

Asphalt Café  
>Monday, September 26, 2011<p>

The usual table for lunch for the Hollywood Art students was unusually quiet as most of them were looking between Freddie and Beck sitting on opposite sides of the table. Each young man ate their respective meals in relative silence as they passed the occasional stare at one another.

Jade tried to keep the concern off of her face as she ate and at witnessing apparently the first real confrontation between her former boyfriend and her current boyfriend. Torn was an inadequate description of what she was feeling. Her being on the other side of an argument with Beck wasn't a problem. They had their disagreements in the past and argued as any other couple, but this time she was in the position of taking another guy's side over Beck's side…and she would and did not look forward to the expected conflicting emotions that followed that choice.

The attention was finally broken after Freddie took a sip from his drink then asked the elder Vega sister sitting on the other side of the table beside Beck, "So how did your 'date' go?"

Trina sighed with her voice filled with disgust, "He didn't like the pizza I brought."

Freddie raised an eyebrow somewhat surprised by the response. He asked with a hint of disbelief in his voice, "He was paying attention to the pizza instead of you?" Before Trina could answer, Freddie answered his own question, "I think you should give up on him."

Trina's brow furled and questioned, "Why?"

The brown eye teenager leaned slightly forward and grinned as he answered, "Because there is obviously something wrong with him if he's not interested in even talking to you… or he has a girlfriend, but I doubt she's prettier than you—"

Beck nearly chocked on a mid-sip of his drink then coughed to clear his throat. The rest of them looked to Freddie with a muted surprise from his comment except surprisingly Jade.

Freddie raised a corner of his mouth as he asked in a concern voice, "Alright there Beck?"

The taller teenager finally cleared his throat and met the former Seattleite's eyes. "I'm okay… just tried to go down the wrong way."

Freddie nodded his head. He finished a quick French fry he popped in his mouth then answered looking back to Trina, "Just something to think about if you still want to go for him."

The older Vega sister looked down to her food and thought for a moment on what the former Tech-Producer told her.

Freddie took a quick glance at his phone sitting on the table to check the time. Freddie looked to Tori and commented, "We need to get going." He gave Jade a quick squeeze of her hand the got up from his seat and spared a quick glance towards Beck.

The brunette nodded her head and started gathering up her trash. "Right," she answered as she followed suit getting up.

Jade watched the pair head off to class, but she wasn't the only one as Beck wore a guarded expression.

Tori and Freddie were cutting through the back of the café to head for Mister Allen's class, but they stopped when they saw Sikowitz sitting with his back supported by one of the support beams.

Lane walked by and looked to the pair. He looked down at the mopping acting teacher then back to Tori. The guidance counselor asked in disbelief, "What did you do to him?"

"No…" Tori moaned as she led them off to the side. "I took him to see a play, but the play was about a man that hates his life because he's a high school teacher."

"Well that was cruel."

Tori desperately replied, "I didn't know what the play was about."

"It was still cruel," he reiterate with a sad expression.

Freddie spoke up, "He's a grown man. If he didn't like being a high school teacher then he shouldn't be one, not moping about it."

Tori past Freddie a glance then blew out a breath as she asked Lane with a hint of impatience, "How about some guidance—counselor?"

Lane pulled a squirt bottle of lotion from his bag then squirted a bit of hand lotion in his hand. "Talk to him," was all he could offer then turned to go on his way.

She looked to Freddie and he gave her a supportive smile that made her feel a smidge better. The pair turned and Tori took a seat beside the acting teacher while Freddie remained standing.

The lighter brunette asked cautiously, "How's that coconut?"

"Round, hairy," he replied dryly.

Tori spoke in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry we took you to that play."

"Why sorry? I loved it," he answered somewhat confused by her statement.

"Well just cause it was about…You loved it?" she finished perplexed as she was caught off guard by the answer.

"Mmm huh."

"But, you're all depressed," Tori countered confused.

"Does it show?" he answered with a frown and near the point of tears.

Freddie nodded along. "Yes."

The acting teacher spared a glance up at the teenager then back to Tori.

Tori responded, "Kinda, what's wrong?"

Sikowitz sighed then looked back and forth between the pair. "Well see, I was dating this woman and during the play she sent me a text message. She dumped me and she's moving to Fresno."

Tori felt a wave of relief wash over her as she answered with a smile, "Oh, that's awesome—"

The teacher looked to Tori which he looked back with disbelief.

She quickly explained, "No, no, no, I mean we thought you were depressed because it was about a high school teacher who was a sad pathetic loser and…"

Sikowitz looked to her with 'are you serious' expression.

"…nothing," she finished with a hesitant smile.

He patted Tori on top of the hand and gave a forced smile. "It is alright, I love being a teacher."

"Good… well, I'm sorry your lady bailed on you."

"It is what it is…" He stood up and patted her on the head. "What it is," he finished and walked off.

Tori got up and looked to Freddie with an unsure expression. He gave her a half smile and shrug of his shoulder.

Robbie approached the pair and asked, "Have you seen Rex? We're playing hide and seek."

"Nope, haven't seen him," Tori answered with a shrug.

They heard a sneeze coming from Tori's backpack. The three looked to Tori's back then she turned her book bag around her side.

As Robbie unzipped Tori's bag and pulled Rex out of Tori's backpack, the puppet complained, "Ah, man."

"I told you to stay out of Tori's backpack," Robbie admonished the puppet.

Rex countered in an instant, "But it smells good in there."

Freddie took a moment to humor the ventriloquist. "Wait, how do you play hide and seek when Rex is a quadriplegic?"

Robbie began to speak but stopped to look at Rex. The puppet had no apparent explanation either, so Robbie eventually admitted, "I don't know." The pair turned away and headed back inside the school.

Tori looked to Freddie with a raised eyebrow.

Freddie shrugged a shoulder and cracked a smile. "You pretend he's real. I'm just pointing out the obvious."

The lighter brunette rolled her eyes then looked back to her empty book bag. She took a sniff from it and smiled.

Freddie cracked a smile at her reaction.

Once the brunette processed that her book bag did smell good, she turned to look at Freddie and began, "I have an idea…"

After listening to her plan, he offered, "No that is a crazy and more importantly, bad idea."

She slightly frowned and asked desperately, "Please?"

He gave her a slight frown and added a hint of edge to his voice, "Don't do the please for me thing."

She blinked and asked with a confused expression, "What?"

He shook his head. "Never mind." He looked to the perplexed expression giving way to sadness on Tori's face. Old and new habits and views warred in his head for a few moments on what he should do, because he wasn't eager into being emotionally manipulated anymore, but was she trying to do that to him? …No. He blew out a breath then answered, "Okay, but I'm doing this under protest and saying right now that this is a bad idea."

She returned with a bright smile. "Fine, you get to say 'I told you so'."

Freddie grinned. "Deal. I guess I have to put off my talk with Beck."

Tori gave him an uneasy smile.

Hollywood Arts  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Monday, September 26, 2011

Jade and Cat were sitting at a table just past the main stairwell of the main hallway towards the drink machines and janitor's closet.

Jade heard the beep from her phone sitting on top of the table. She picked it up and read over the message quickly. "Ugh, unbelievable, okay," Jade sighed in disgust as she started texting in return.

"Still fighting with Beck?" Cat asked with concern.

"Oh yeah… there," she finished her texting with a sigh of satisfaction.

Cat asked with a curious tone, "Whadya text him?"

Jade grinned and held her phone towards Cat. The redhead took a quick intake of breath and cupped her cheeks then looked down at the table.

A tall brunette approached the pair. "Excuse me, will I be auditioning next?"

"Maybe," Jade answered as she started typing on her phone.

"Because I've been waiting for forty minutes—"

Jade brushed off the brunette, "Okay, take care now."

The woman frowned then turned to get back in line.

"You're so good with people," Cat commented innocently. "So why are we making a student film?"

Jade continued to type on her phone as she countered. "We're not."

Cat motioned a hand towards the waiting line of woman. "So why are we audition all these ladies to play Jessica?"

"This is Tori's idea, alright," Jade brushed her off.

"But all these ladies think they're auditioning for a stu—"

"Cat!" she shouted and instantly grabbing the red velvet haired teenager's attention. A part of her wanted to pick up the Zip-Lock bag resting beside her chair filled with colorful circular cereal and shove it in the teenager's mouth to shut her up, because that would be something she'd usually do to stop the annoyance. However, it had been a long two months of soul searching on how to treat friends and growing up starting with that sleepless night of when they returned from Yerba.

She took a calm breath and started, "Cat, it's Tori's idea. She's actually auditioning women to find Sikowitz a new girlfriend."

The redhead blinked then gave a quick nod of her head as she commented, "Oh."

Tori dashed around the corner near the drink machines and called out, "Ready for the next one."

Jade called out, "Yeah, okay, auditioning next, Larissa Jenson,"

She approached with a smile and gave a brief wave. "Hi, where do I audition?"

The dark brunette pointed over her shoulder, "Down the hall, to the left, third door on the right."

"May I use your restroom first?"

"No," she answered in a clipped tone.

The brunette frowned as she walked past the table.

Cat looked to Jade and started, "One time, my brother—"

Jade rolled her eyes, but patiently listened to the redhead's story.

Sikowitz's Classroom

Larissa gave a hesitant smile as she looked from the stage at Tori, André and Freddie, "May I ask, what is this film about?"

Sikowitz tapped his fingertips across the back of the script in his hands and gave a small, embarrassed smile as he replied, "I've asked her that five times."

"And action!" Tori called out, brushing away their questions as André checked on the set up laptop to record the auditions and Freddie operated the camera.

Sikowitz swallowed down his objections and turned to the tall brunette. "Jessica, I feel so lonely."

"Why do you feel lonely?"

"Because I'm alone."

She took a step closer and placed a hand on his cheek. "No man should ever be alone."

"You look beautiful in this moonlight," he responded then glanced towards Tori.

The teenager reminded him, "That's the line where you stroke her hair."

He looked back at Larissa and raised his hand to stroke her hair. "Oh Jessica, you look—" He cut himself off as he leaned in for a quick kiss.

"Cut, cut!" Tori shouted and put her PearPad down to approach to pair. She grabbed a hold of Sikowitz and pulled him off of the stage.

Freddie looked to André as Tori dragged Sikowitz off for yet another discussion. André walked up on stage to speak with Larissa as Tori spoke to Sikowitz. Freddie had a seat and relaxed for a moment with a cross of his arms.

He was actually glad that Tori's little scheme had put off his talk with Beck. He hadn't actually thought of anything other to say to the taller teenager other than 'What the Hell did you do to upset her?' and he knew things would just spiral down from that point. Him getting upset about Jade eating a banana on the surface seemed ridiculous, but on the long list of things Jade hated (and he had a written up a list on the safe side), bananas were on that list yet she ate one. In his mind, the text fighting reaching the point of upsetting her enough to affect her eating habits seemed to fit the conditions for punching the actor.

Before he could take that line of thought further, Tori called out suddenly, "Thank you, we'll let you know."

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Hollywood Arts students had arrived at school pretty early to surprise Sikowitz with Tori's latest plan to cheer up their acting teacher.

"Knock, knock, he's coming," Cat called out with glee as she ran through the door and up the stairs.

Tori held a light brown and white furred bunny rabbit in her arms and went down the stairs to set the furry creature on the bottom step. "Okay bunny, don't move," she whispered to the animal. She quickly dashed into the side ladies' bathroom near the fish lockers.

Sikowitz walked inside and immediately stopped when he saw the bunny on the step.

"Well, my goodness, you've scampered far from home, haven't you?" he commented as he approached and picked up the dossal animal.

Tori walked out of the bathroom and greeted her teacher, "Hey Sikowitz."

"Hello," he answered as he stroked the fur of the bunny.

Tori was grinning nearly ear to ear as she asked, "So, what you got there?"

"I found this little rabbit just wondering about."

André grinned as he spoke up, "Ah, how cute."

"Isn't she?"

"So, why don't you take her home?" Jade asked with a forced smile.

"Oh, I'm not into rabbits," he answered and looked at the bunny and petting her ears.

The group was expectantly shocked by the news as the looked to each other to make sure they heard correctly. Tori sputtered out, "But, but you've been depressed for days cause you miss your ex-girlfriend's bunny."

"Well yes… oh you thought bunny was a rabbit?"

"Well, yeah," the brunette came back with the confidence that it was the logical conclusion.

"No, no, no, bunny is a cat."

"A cat?" Beck asked dumbfounded.

"Yes, the woman I was dating named her cat after her Aunt Bunny. Who is dead."

"Ah," Rex sounded upset.

"But, you told me it hopped all around," Tori stated in surprise and threw out her hands.

"Yes, she only had three legs, poor kitty," he answered sadly.

Freddie jokingly spoke up, "Sam's cat is the same way… three legs and bouncy. They really need to put that cat to sleep."

Cat took in a sharp intake of breath.

He looked to the redhead with a sympathetic smile. "The cat's nearly rabid. It tried to claw my eyes out one time."

Cat nodded, feeling a little better with the explanation.

"You loved her cat?" Robbie asked with a little disbelief.

"Very much, but I'll get over it." He sat the bunny down then commented to the students, "Well, back to the wilderness you go." He then headed down the hall as the bunny started hopping away.

Tori turned to her friends and started, "Okay, so here's the new plan—"

"No," everyone answered then started on their separate ways, but Freddie stayed to give her a reassuring smile.

"Don't feel bad for trying to help someone… trust me on this. I have some personal experience in this area."

She gave a slight nod and replied with a warm smile, "Thank you Freddie."

"You're welcome."

She looked over her shoulder to see the bunny hopping further away. "Oh, I got to catch the bunny," she whined to herself.

Freddie gave her a quick pat on the shoulder. "It's okay. I'll help you catch the bunny."

The pair started off after the bunny while Jade had stopped at the second to last step of the right directed stairwell watching them as she realized the Freddie had not followed her.

Unaware or not caring, Jade didn't acknowledge the fact that Beck was waiting at the top step watching her, Freddie and Tori with a guarded expression.


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Note: I hope everyone has had a nice week so far. Giving you a chapter a little early since the last one was late.

Special Guest Appearance by Jennifer Connelly as Ruby Lynn West

* * *

><p>Chapter 9<p>

TheSlap Computer Room  
>Hollywood Arts<br>Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Freddie blew out a breath as he finally made it to the computer room that had unofficially been taken over to running and maintaining the school's students' page TheSlap. The bunny Tori bought for Sikowitz could be surprisingly quick and it had taken them the last twenty minutes to catch him. He wasn't exactly sure what the lighter haired brunette was going to do with the bunny, but he really didn't have time at the moment to worry about it as now he just had a few minutes to get what he wanted done before he had to make it for the rest of his science class.

The former Tech-Producer glanced around and saw just a handful of students who were almost glued to their computers working on whatever various task were taking their attention. He was looking for a particular student, a fellow senior that was more or less in charge of TheSlap.

After glancing around for a few more seconds he found his quarry. "Hey," Freddie called out. "Dusty Hale?"

A dark haired teenager at the other side of the room standing over a computer answered with a friendly smile as he turned around then finished with a soft laugh as he saw Freddie, "Yeah, I'm Dusty—Freddie Benson?" He was slightly taller than Freddie, but not by much so and leaner than the muscular teen. He had short, light brown hair, and styled in a classic tapered haircut. He wore a long sleeve navy blue Henley shirt and medium shade blue jeans.

Freddie cracked a slightly embarrassed smile as he approached the fellow senior. "Yep, that's me."

Dusty waved a hand off. "Sorry man, fan of your work then and now."

Freddie gave a slight nod of his head as he picked up the slight hint of a southern accent. "Thanks… so you're the head guy for TheSlap?"

Dusty shrugged a shoulder. "Kinda, but it's really ran by committee. It's counted as a club, so it needs a 'president'. What brings you by our little sanctuary?"

The former Tech-Producer tilted his head slightly to the side as he responded with a casual smile, "I wanted to talk to you about the possibility of posting some videos on TheSlap."

Dusty raised an eyebrow and raised a corner of his mouth. "I don't understand? You know you can post videos. You put up your profile video."

Freddie snorted out a laugh, "I mean I want to put up something more than just a three minute video. I had my first production recorded and I wanted to put that up so others could see it, since we had an accident the first time around and that got posted. I also want to put up a short film that Jade just finished to get her a little exposure as a filmmaker."

Dusty slightly winced as he answered, "Yeah, I heard about what happened at your play the first time around from Cat. That was a tough break."

Freddie raised an eyebrow.

"We tried dating a week or so before school started back. It didn't work out," he finished with a bittersweet smile.

Freddie cracked a smile. "You're the same Dusty? The one where—"

He gave a quick roll of his eyes and answered with a humorous tone. "I should have been named Soapy? Yeah, that's me. It really is just short for Dustin, but I found it pretty cute."

"Sorry it didn't work out. I think she kind of liked you."

"I still like her too, but…" he shrugged his shoulders. "It's just one of those cases where you can like someone, but you're not really all that compatible. It felt more like brother watching out for her for those few days, because you know she's so…"

Freddie tried to keep the edge out of his voice as he answered, "What?"

Dusty answered almost whimsical, "Innocent, yet not at the same time."

Freddie relaxed at the answer and elaborated, "That kind of sums her up."

The other senior chuckled for a moment. "You don't know the half of it. Anyway, why don't you just use SplashFace?"

Freddie wasn't really sure what the other teenager meant by that statement, but he let it slide for the moment. "I wanted them to be associated with the school. Maybe get more viewers to the site and some publicity for the school."

Dusty blew out a breath as he took a seat in one of the chairs at a computer station he had been standing over and offered one to Freddie with a motion of his hand. Freddie graciously accepted it as Dusty continued, "We're getting too many viewers at the moment."

Freddie's brow furled as he replied, "Now I don't understand."

The slightly taller teenager slightly grimaced as he explained, "Well, the site has been swamped with viewers since you started school. We can barely keep the site up with the traffic from all the people curious about you. We don't have the capacity that iCarly apparently possess. You have the most views of any profile at school and your profile video has a record view count. Then there's the jump in views with Jade's profile and videos because they want to know about the girl you chose over Carly and Sam."

Freddie frowned as he narrowed his look towards the fellow senior.

Dusty answered with an equal stare and a slight edge in his voice, "Hey, don't get mad at me. I'm just telling you how it is. I read some of the message boards. You thought it was bad at WebiCon? That was a tea party compared to what happened after you left the show. It went into a full blown war among the fans on who was to blame for you leaving and it was pretty nasty."

Freddie looked slightly embarrassed about what happened at the web convention. The fans nearly tore each other apart a few times.

Dusty slightly smirked as he finished, "What? You didn't think someone might have recorded what happened on a phone then put it on-line?"

The former Seattleite gave a resign nod.

Dusty blew out a breath and rubbed his forehead for a moment. He looked up to meet Freddie's eyes. "You know people put up little stuff, but we've never had anyone put of production stuff before and if we let you do it then everyone else might want to start doing that and we don't have the space or server capacity for that. You know you putting up your first work since you left iCarly and Jade's short film is going to crash the site."

"So that's a no?"

He slightly shook his head. He answered with an apologetic tone, "We don't have the money for another server."

"I can solve that problem to help you out with the traffic because of me, but on posting videos, why can't we start up a dedicated SplashFace account for the school?"

Dusty tilted his head slightly and blinked for a moment thinking on the suggestion. "Ah, I don't see why not. That would solve a lot of problems right there. Probably need to check with Principal Dubois, but you have to talk to her about that."

"Why not?"

He rubbed his chin. "She doesn't like me."

Freddie raised a curious eyebrow. "Why?"

"Do you know the story about what happened when she first got here?"

"About her re-auditioning everyone?"

"Yeah, but what the last year seniors did?"

Freddie laughed recalling Jade's short story, "I was briefly told how they responded."

"Well, I joined them in their little 'protest' and she's a very resentful woman."

Freddie softly laughed, "'Protest'?"

Dusty joined him in the laugh, "Ryder may have been a womanizing ass, but he was right about _her_."

Once their shared laughter died down, Freddie picked up, "Okay, I'll check with her. She apparently likes me."

"Who wouldn't like Freddie Benson?"

The brown eye teenager answered with a soft, sarcastic voice, "You don't know the half of it."

Dusty let out a soft snort. "I wouldn't doubt it since you're here instead of Seattle."

Freddie leaned back in his chair as he studied the leaner teenager. "You're not curious to why I left the show?"

The slightly taller teenager leaned back in his chair as well and shrugged a shoulder with a playful smirk on his face. "Of course I am, but it's obvious personal, so it's none of my business. You look happy being with Jade and as fan shouldn't I support you being happy?"

Freddie was silent from the question.

Dusty brought the back of his hand to his mouth to try to suppress a laugh. He pointed at Freddie with the pointer finger of the hand and continued, "You weren't expecting anyone to say that?"

"Not really… well it was nice talking to you." Freddie stood up and Dusty followed suit. "I'll check with Helen then I'll send you the files to upload when she gives the okay. I'll swing by tomorrow and let you borrow one of my old servers I use to use for iCarly. It should solve the traffic issues."

Dusty gave a quick nod. "Thanks, we'll appreciate it and not a problem about the videos. She gives the clear I'll get them up as soon as I can."

"Thanks."

Dusty shrugged a shoulder. "Not a problem. It's not everyday I get to meet a person I'm a fan of and they ask me for a favor."

Freddie gave a half smirk then turned to head for the door. He stopped just at the threshold and turned to look over his shoulder at Dusty. "Creddie or Seddie?"

The question seemed to peak the interest of some of the students working on the computers.

Dusty threw his head back slightly and laughed for a few moments. He kept a grin on his face as he answered, "How do you know I don't support Cam? I'm wondering when they're going to start making out in the middle of one of their Cowboy and Idiot Farm Girl skits. That'll bring the ratings back."

Freddie shook his head with a smile as he exited the room as he heard Dusty laughing.

West Residence  
>Tuesday, September 27, 2011<p>

Jade pulled one of her mother's cars that she was allowed to use into the driveway with Freddie in the passenger seat after an eventful day. The day may have started off with a disappointed surprise of not really being able to cheer up Sikowitz, but the rest was pretty pleasant. After Freddie's meeting with Dusty, he was able to get approval with Helen about starting an official Hollywood Arts page on SplashFace, Tori having to on to the bunny was a welcome distraction in Sikowitz and Mister Allen's classes and to end the day on a high note, he and Jade were able to swing by Jet Brew for a coffee and smoothie.

Jade had to stop in the driveway after pressing the remote on the automatic garage door open because in her usual parking spot in the two car garage, the couple was surprised to see an outline of a car under a large brown tarp in the spot. Once the dark brunette put the vehicle in park and turned off the ignition, the pair exited the vehicle and slowly approached the vehicle.

Freddie motioned his hand towards the tarp with a questioning look on his face. Jade shrugged her shoulders and looked just as curious as he. Freddie lifted an end up of the tarp to take a quick peek to see the front left tire with a missing hubcap and chipped off black paint and some rust spots of the fender.

He dropped the tarp back over the fender and looked to Jade with a smirk. He laughed, "It's a car."

The singer shook her head slightly and closed her eyes as his Captain Obvious statement was to actually play with her. She blew out a breath and opened her eyes then asked, "But why is it here?"

Freddie snorted out a laugh and shrugged a shoulder, "I don't know. You're the one that lives here."

She narrowed her eyes on him, but remained silent for a few moments then approached to hook her arm with one of his to lead him into the house. The pair cut through the kitchen and headed passed the living room as Jade was curious as to the reason for the vehicle and wanted to find her mother.

The dark brunette wasn't disappointed as she found Ruby sitting cross-legged on the couch as she watched television. She had changed from her usual business attire into casual wear of sweatpants and grey long sleeve tank and eating a small snack before dinner.

"Hey mom, what's with the car under the tarp?"

The raven haired beauty raised an eyebrow mid-way through eating a piece of mango. She quickly finished chewing the fruit piece in her mouth then asked with a worried expression, "You didn't look did you?"

Freddie embarrassingly answered, "I took a peak."

She blew out a breath and rolled her eyes. "Well that is a surprise for you."

"A surprise?" he asked slowly then turned his head to look at Jade.

She looked at him just as in the dark as to what surprise her mother had in store for him.

Ruby got up from the couch and motion for them to follower her as she spoke, "Follow me."

The pair dropped their bags by the couch then complied as she led them back through the kitchen and towards the garage. The West Matriarch walked around to the front of the tarp covered car and took a few tries to pull the brown cover off to reveal the vehicle: paint chipped, rust spotted, dark blue driver's door against a faded black body, missing two hubcaps from what he could see from the angle he was viewing, nineteen sixty nine Dodge Charger.

"Surprise," Ruby laughed as she motioned with her hands to the vehicle. "She's yours."

Freddie blinked for a moment at looking at the vehicle then at Mrs. Rest and processing that she said 'She's yours'.

She cracked an uneasy smile as she continued, "You need a set of wheels of your own and Roy's boss owns a junkyard slash salvage yard and I found this. I thought you'd appreciate something with a little style." She whistled for a moment then finished, "And boy does she have style."

Freddie remained silence as he slowly walked around the vehicle and patted driver's door at the window.

Ruby cleared her throat noticing his reaction then she continued, "I admit, she needs some good old fashion TLC, but she runs… for the most part and I've had her checked out, so she can pass inspection. Still… you might have to replace a few parts in the next couple of weeks."

Freddie turned away from the door to look at the older woman. He opened his mouth to begin then stopped for a moment. He started again with clear hesitation in his voice, "I can't tell you how much I appreciate this Mrs. West, but I can't afford a car right now."

Ruby grinned as she slightly shook her head. "Freddie, I know you can't. I got it from a _salvage yard_. Roy's boss practically gave to me, so I'm basically giving it to you."

Freddie swallowed then tried several times to clear his throat, but was finally able to get out, "Thank you Mrs. West."

She gave him a warm smile as she replied, "You're welcome."

Freddie opened the door as wide as he could with Mrs. West's primary vehicle and looked inside to see the worn black seats.

"Get some of that rust off, a new paint job, a new part here and there and she'll look as good as new,"

"I can't afford to take it any place and I really don't know anything about cars—"

"But you're a smart kid. You learned all about computers and filmmaking mostly on your own. How would this be any different? It's not like all those kids that work on cars just magically know what they're doing. They have to learn it from somewhere."

Freddie took a seat in the driver's seat with his left leg still outside and rested a hand over the door with the rolled down window. He looked up at the smiling woman and laughed off, "I see your point."

Ruby suggested, "You could always ask Beck for some help to check out the engine. He's good with cars."

Freddie raised an eyebrow as he looked towards her while Jade put on a guarded expression.

"Am I missing something here? I thought everyone was fine with one another?"

Jade was hesitant to speak, but Freddie answered her question with a gentle tone, "We are, just… hitting a rough spot in the road staying with the car theme of our conversation."

She spared glances to Freddie and Jade as she retorted, "Just remember, turn into the skid, not away from it."

"I think that's what we're doing," he answered with a reassuring tone then fully got into the driver's seat and looked at the dash with a smile playing on his face.

While Freddie was examining the interior of the vehicle, Jade walked over to stand with her mother and whispered, "Dad's boss really didn't 'give it to you' if it's running."

Ruby wrapped her arms around herself and whispered back while keeping her eyes on Freddie, "That's an assumption you can't prove… one of the most important things he needs right now that everyone else has tried to take from him is his dignity. He wouldn't have accepted it without paying for it, so he wouldn't since he can't afford it without digging into his savings for college he's dependent on even more since that blonde haired she-demon as you called her cost him his meal ticket to any college. So I'm sticking to my story—" She turned her head to face her daughter, "—and you'll have to prove I'm lying about what it cost me."

Jade finally whispered back, "Thank you mom."

Ruby smiled softly back and wrapped an arm around her daughter's shoulders to give her a one arm hug.

Freddie turned his head and smiled to Jade as he laughed, "I got a car."

Jade nodded her head and smiled warmly back at the joyful expression on his face.

He laughed out, "Just have to learn how to drive a stick."

Ruby raised her other hand as she called out, "I'll teach you if I have to."

He gave a nod of his head then looked back to examine the interior as he figured out what could be cleaned and what he'd need to replace.

"Why a Charger?"

Ruby tilted her head slightly to the side and thought back a few years. "It's stylish… and when I was your age, my first boyfriend had a sixty nine Charger. A lot of good memories associated with it… even if the last ones were bittersweet."

Jade gave her a sympathetic expression. "What happened with him?"

Ruby shrugged her opposite shoulder from the one against Jade as she still had an arm around her shoulders and answered, "He cheated on me near the end of the summer before our senior year… and Steven beat the shit out of him for it. He used Glenn to smash out the driver side window."

"Are you ever going to tell us the whole story between you and Colonel Shay?"

Ruby smirked at her daughter then pulled away to tell the pair, "Well I'm going to leave you two alone and go ahead and start on dinner." She commented as she headed to the kitchen entrance to the garage, "That mango didn't doing anything for me."

Freddie called out as he shifted his weight in the seat and got his left foot out of the door, "I'll be right there to help you."

Ruby waved a hand behind her as she passed through the door.

Freddie stepped out of the car and shut the door then looked to Jade. "I hope you won't be embarrassed riding with me in her until I can get her fixed up. You don't have to ride in it if you don't want to."

She wrapped her arms behind his neck and replied, "I would not be embarrassed to ride with you. It just needs some TLC." She leaned forward and shared a brief kiss.

Freddie pulled back and smiled playfully while he narrowed his gaze on his pale girlfriend. "Well, I should help your mom with dinner."

"Right," she agreed and pulled away from him.

The brown eye teenager shook his head as he put an arm around her shoulders and walked with her back into the house. "What a day? Tori gets a bunny and I get a car."

Jade shook her head as well and smirked as she added, "Poor Tori."

Freddie laughed, "I'm sorry you didn't get to keep the bunny."

The actress raised an eyebrow. "Sorry?"

"Yeah, admit it, you found the bunny cute."

Jade gave an even expression and refused to meet his eyes.

He playfully poked her side causing her to surprisingly let out a giggle. "Okay, the bunny was cute." The dark brunette curiously asked as they passed the threshold between the garage and the kitchen, "So, what is Tori going to do with the bunny?"

"I don't know…"

Vega Residence  
>Tuesday, September 27, 2011<p>

Tori Vega had changed into some night casual wear with a loose peach colored shirt with the word 'Bonjour' printed across the chest, a visible black undershirt, blue tight leggings and wearing her rectangular glasses. She took a bite off the tip of the carrot then pointed the carrot towards the bunny resting on several pillows beside her and looking at the television. "You want to watch CSI?"

The bunny sniffed the carrot propped up in front of him with the tip apparently having been nibbled.

"M'kay," she answered and took another bite out of her carrot then pressed a button on the remote control turning to the channel the show was playing and opening with police sirens.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: According to theSlap website, Dusty (however the last name is my invention) is a guy that Cat dated very briefly before school started back and she made that DustySoapy joke in a message, so he's basically a character with a name and that is it. An OC Stand In basically. Also, this is why I didn't end the last chapter with the bunny and Tori: the day wasn't over, it had just begun. See you next week.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Notes: Hello my dear readers. I have an especially long installment for you today. I hope you like it. Thanks once again to all those that have read and reviewed. I've enjoyed the discussions and insight that you have brought to the story. Well, on with the story. Oh, and a slight language warning for one bad word.

* * *

><p>Chapter 10<p>

Music Room  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Wednesday, September 28, 2011<p>

It was around four in the afternoon as Freddie and André were sitting across from one another with Freddie sitting on one of the orange couches while André was in a swivel, rolling chair that went with the keyboard setup for the room. André had his personal guitar in his lap going over some cords while Freddie was using one of the school's guitars.

The school day went pretty well for Freddie. He was able to drop off his old server and a copy of his and Jade's productions this morning for Dusty to load up as soon as the SplashFace page for the school was completed, found out why Trina didn't get with Shawn (he still guessed that the girlfriend wasn't as pretty as Trina and thought it was his loss), _but_ he still hadn't found an opportunity to have a discussion with Beck. The taller teenager had immediately left after school and the former Tech-Producer wasn't sure if he was trying to avoid him or not, but at least the text fighting between he and Jade had ceased.

André played a few cords for Freddie to mimic which to brown eye teenager was played back at least competently then asked, "So I heard you got a car."

Freddie smirked as he practiced his fingering over the cords. "I got a car. She's not much to look at right now, but Mrs. West is right; I just have to give her some tender loving care and you'll see the beauty shine from underneath it all."

André smirked as he pointed out, "Are you sure she was talking about the car?"

Freddie snorted out a breath as he raised his head to look at the songsmith then chuckled, "I hadn't thought about it that way."

The guitar player raised a hand and pointed at the former Tech-Producer as he commented, "She's probably testing you to see how you treat the car and if you'll treat Jade just as well."

"Two months into the relationship is a fine time to start testing it now, especially since I'm renting a room from her."

André chuckled, "Just makes it easier for her to catch you."

Freddie shook his head and joined in the laughter. "I'll keep that in mind."

As they started on a new set of cords, André spoke up, "So… did you have your talk with Beck yet?"

Freddie poked his tongue under his bottom lip as his fingers manipulated some of the strings then replied with a hint of annoyance in his voice, "No I haven't."

The songsmith caught the look that Freddie was directing at him that showed that he really didn't want to talk about it with him, but André continued anyway, "I just wanted to say that whatever you have to say to him that you remember that we're all friends."

Freddie gave him an understanding nod then replied, "My relationship with Jade and her wellbeing is far more important than whatever little of a friendship I have with Beck and I think it is the same way if it was me saying something about Tori and it was you wanting to have a conversation with me. You and I have known each other for what? About six months, friends for really a little more than two and you've known her for a year and a half. I wouldn't be wrong in saying that your friendship with her is far stronger than ours."

The songsmith nodded along as he couldn't find an immediate flaw in his logic to reach his conclusion. He really wouldn't be all that happy with Freddie saying something about Tori or anyone else he thought was mistreating the singer.

Before either could continue the conversation, Freddie's Galaxy Wars ringtone started sounding from his book bag and the teenager gently sat the guitar down beside him on the couch. He dug in his book bag for a few seconds then pulled out his pear shaped phone. He saw the caller ID then answered, "Mom?"

André rested his forearms over his guitar and leaned forward as he tried to pick up the meaning of the conversation.

"You did what?" he asked his mother with evident surprise in his voice. He waited for about half a minute to hear his mother's explanation then replied, "Okay, mom… mom, mom! Calm down! I'm going to get of flight and be there by tonight then we'll figure out what to do. I love you and see you soon." Freddie pressed the end call button then slipped his phone back into his book bag and got up to put the guitar back on the rack against the side wall.

André raised his head and asked with concern, "Is everything okay?"

Freddie walked back around the couch and quickly threw the book bag strap over his head and across his chest. He looked to André and held on to his book bag strap as he answered, "Kinda and kinda not… my mom may have made a bad chicken investment. I got to go. I'll see you when I get back." The Seattle native turned and headed out of the room.

The songsmith's brow furled as he asked to the empty classroom, "Chicken investment?"

Freddie Benson's Room  
>West Residence<br>Wednesday, September 28, 2011

It wasn't an hour later after leaving Hollywood Arts that a blue suitcase lay open on Freddie's bed as he was packing the last of the clothes he intended to take for his trip.

The pale teenager asked standing behind him with a hint of disbelief in her voice, "So you're going up tonight?"

He looked over his shoulder as he answered, "She's in a near panic on the phone. She's already called me twice since I got home and I can barely calm her down."

Jade shook her head and let out a sigh, "How could your mother spend twenty thousand dollars on two chickens?"

Freddie turned from his suitcase to look at the singer who didn't bother to hide the irritation on her face. He held up his right pointer finger, "It was one chicken," then held up his left pointer finger, "and one rooster."

The dark brunette gave a roll of her eyes as she crossed her arms under her chest. "And she spent ten thousand dollars on each?"

He spread his arms out and tried to explain patiently, "They're Tahitian red beak chickens, the rarest chickens in the world. When their eggs hatch, people buy the baby chicks for a thousand each."

The singer's brow furled and retorted, "What's the problem? She'll make her money back and then some."

Freddie nodded his head back and forth and rolled his eyes towards the ceiling as the thought about how to answer the question. He looked back to his girlfriend and answered, "No, she can't get them… to have sex."

Jade's mouth dropped open for a moment as she stared at her boyfriend. After taking a few moments to realize that he was serious, she palmed her forehead and sighed.

Freddie blew out a breath then continued, "I've been meaning to go back up there for a visit. I'll go up and talk to some vet or whatever specialist I need to so we can get them to start making babies. Mom will make her money back and should have a lot of extra for savings in no time."

Jade wrapped her arms around herself and replied dryly, "Fine. I get it. I understand."

Freddie smirked as he took a few steps to stand just in front of her. He softly placed his hands on her hips. She instinctively raised her arms to rest her forearms on his shoulders and locked her hands together behind his neck. He whispered in a smooth tone, "Why don't _we_ just blow off school and fly up together? I'd love to take you to dinner at the Space Needle. Oh, to see Seattle at night from that view… it will take your breath away."

Jade cracked a smile as his offer was quite tempting as the look in his eyes suggested that he would love for her to share such an experience with him: spend a whirlwind four day weekend with him as he showed her the city properly and just enjoyed themselves as they really didn't have the opportunity (and the emotions were still raw with how everything had played out between the trio of friends) when she went up with him to help him pack up his belongings for the moved to Los Angeles.

However, the more level headed side of her responded, "You'd pay for my ticket?"

Freddie's brow furled and gave her a near pout, "Yeah, of course—"

She leaned back slightly and shook her head as she answered, "Then no."

"No?" he asked with raised eyebrows and allowed the shock of her answer filter in his voice.

"You don't need to spend the money on me for a ticket. You need the money for your mother if the whole chicken thing doesn't work out."

He smiled then slowly kissed her. She grinned into the kiss as she pulled him closer. They let their lips softly played with one another for a few seconds until Freddie pulled back his head and wore a grin as he complimented, "You are far sweeter than you let on."

"Charmer," she whispered back then leaned in for another kiss.

Bushwell Plaza  
>Seattle, WA<br>Wednesday, September 28, 2011

It was around nine that night when Freddie walked into the lobby of Bushwell Plaza with his book bag on his back and carrying a suitcase in each hand. He cracked a soft smile at seeing Lewbert holding up his head with one hand and elbow on the countertop while he slept at the front desk. He walked past the sleeping doorman to head for the main elevator.

About a minute or so later, the elevator reached the eighth floor then he headed for the apartment. He stopped in front of the apartment entrance and sat a suitcase down to give a soft knock on the door.

The door quickly opened to reveal an ecstatic Mrs. Benson with a wide grin on her face.

"Hi mom," he whispered back with a smile.

"Freddie!" she shouted then pulled him into a hug. Mrs. Benson squeezed her son tight as if afraid to let him go which wasn't far from the truth.

Freddie cleared his throat and embarrassingly laugh as he patted her back, "Okay mom, you can let me go."

She let go of the hug and rested her hands on his upper arms as she looked to him grinning ear to ear. "Right? My baby's home."

Freddie grinned and let her have her moment as she ushered him inside the apartment. As he crossed the threshold into the apartment, he stated dryly, "Yes… home… so, about those chickens."

The door to the Shay apartment opened and Carly poked her head out into the hallway to look around with a curious expression, but failed to see anyone. She shrugged her shoulders then pulled her head back inside and closed the door.

Sikowitz's Classroom  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Thursday, September 29, 2011

Jade leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed under her chest as the rest of the class was settling in their seats and Sikowitz was entering the classroom by the stage door. She ignored the questioning expression on Beck's face as he sat beside her and remained silent.

Sikowitz sat his bag down at the back end of the slightly raised incline of the stage and puckered his lips for a moment and furled his brow as he noticed the empty seat beside Jade. He looked towards the dark brunette and questioned, "Where's Freddie?"

Jade lifted a hand to her forehead to brush away some of her hair off of her forehead. She answered him with a slightly irritated tone, "He had to fly up to Seattle last night. He should be back by Monday."

Tori turned sideways in her chair to face the dark brunette and asked with a concern tone, "Is everything alright?"

André spoke up, "Something about his mom making a bad chicken investment."

Tori looked to his direction and raised an eyebrow at hearing the absurdity of the answer. The rest of the class looking at him looked just as confused.

Jade glared at André and he quickly shut his mouth.

He raised his hands up in surrendering.

The blue and green streaked hair teenager gave a slight roll of her eyes and huffed out a breath.

Sikowitz clapped his hands and clasped them together. "Well, we'll catch him up when he gets back. Now Tori, Jade up on the stage…" Sikowitz motioned towards the stage while releasing his hands and making a wide arcing motion with his arms.

As the girls stood up from their seats, Beck discreetly pulled out his phone from his pocket and quickly typed away with his right hand a text message while shielding the phone with his right thigh then slipping his phone back into his pocket once he was done as everyone turned their attention to the actresses on stage.

Groovy Smoothie  
>Thursday, September 29, 2011<p>

Freddie stood at the front entrance of the establishment with his hand on the door handle. He was hesitant to step inside as it was the usual afternoon rush from Ridgeway and there were bound to be people that would be curious about his presence, but he needed a smoothie to relax and unwind from the day. He had spent the day doing research about the chickens, speaking with someone as close to an expert as possible about the chickens at the University of Washington and trying to do at least do some work of his core classes that his teachers were kind enough to e-mail to him. Fortunately, it looked like they were going to solve the problem about them mating and he was able to accomplish something with his school work while all the time his mother pestered him about life in L.A. as if she didn't know what was going on with the every other day few minutes phone call to catch her up. He did however pointedly fail to tell her about his car. He really didn't want to hear a lecture about safety of the vehicle.

He shook his head to brush away the hesitation and pulled open the door. He quickly entered and slipped through some of the mingling students that weren't at a table and headed for the counter. He caught some surprise looks from his peripheral vision, but ignored them as he reached the counter.

T-Bo turned to face the teenager and a smile instantly appeared on his face. "Freddie?"

Freddie gave him a small, but friendly smile, "Hey T-Bo."

"What'cha doing here?" he spoke with a friendly tone.

He gave a bright smile in return. "Visiting my mom and needing a smoothie after a _very_ long day."

The manager snorted out a laugh then asked, "Alright, what can I get you?"

Freddie blue out a breath and took a quick glance at the display menu over and behind T-Bo's head. "I'll take a large Blue Berry splat," he answered after double checking the item.

"Coming right up," the taller man answered with a grin and quick point at Freddie. He turned to fulfill the order as Freddie reached for his wallet.

T-Bo finished filling the cup then turned to exchange the drink for cash.

"Thanks, T-Bo," the former Tech-Producer acknowledged raising the cup and then taking a quick sip from the straw. Freddie finished sipping his first sip then mumbled, "Jet Brew sure spoiled me."

"What was that?"

The former Tech-Producer lifted his head up and gave a loud denial, "Nothing."

T-Bo blinked and pursed his lips as he studied the teenager.

He flashed a quick smile, "Later T-Bo. I'll be back before I leave for L.A." He turned to head back out the door, but stopped when he saw the brunette and blonde at the small circular table sipping on their smoothies. He assumed that they had missed initially seeing one another through the crowed as he headed for the counter. They stared right back at him with just as unsure expressions, but noticed if he was reading their facial expressions correctly that they weren't particularly shocked by his presence.

He took a slow breath at seeing Carly in person for the first time since that night in his hotel room and the sight started flooding him with various conflicting emotions: hate/love, anger/joy, resentment/admiration, all battling to reach an outcome of what to think of her as four years of friendship crashed headlong into what had broken them once again in his mind.

She was still as lovely as ever he had to admit. She still had her smile even if it didn't radiate as it did in the past. She was apparently growing her bangs back out as the rest of her dark hair fell on her shoulders.

Sam's appearance was quite surprising as she had a left black eye with a Band-Aid on the left side of her forehead and a visible bruise on her left cheek.

The brunette was the first to tentatively verbally acknowledge him with a whisper, "Hi."

Freddie put up an even expression and gave a slight nod as he replied, "Hello."

Sam remained silent as she looked at her former frienemy with a somewhat bashful expression.

Carly cautiously asked, "You're back?"

Freddie ran his tongue over the inside of his bottom lip as he thought about how to answer her. He casually remarked, "A surprise visit to my mom."

Carly nodded her head and looked to her smoothie. "Right…" She looked back up to him and motioned to a side of the table since Carly and Sam were sitting across from one another as she softly asked, "Wanna have a seat?"

He studied the brunette as she wore a bashful expression in the hopes that he would accept. One thought crossed his mind as he studied the pair: '_Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies_.' In his mind he shrugged a shoulder at how accurate that statement could possibly be then finally opted to take the seat between them with Carly on his right and Sam on his left… mostly due to the fact that he could easily backhand the blonde with his left if she attempted anything. It was sad that he had to think in such terms, but the last time they had a conversation, he left with a dislocated shoulder and a possible head injury while she left with a few broken ribs, torn out hair and a cut that led to a visible scar on her upper right cheek.

The trio remained silent for a few moments as they each took a sip from their respective smoothies. Freddie could feel the eyes of some of the patrons watching him and he had no doubts that some were actually recording the three of them sitting together with their respective phones.

Carly cleared her throat then whispered, "I saw your play on SplashFace last night. I thought it was really good."

He cautiously nodded back at her attempt at a light and safe conversation. It had been about two months since they had seen or spoken to one another after the complete collapse of their friendship, so what other option did she have if she was going to speak with him? Besides, they were in public and Carly had decided to keep what happened between the three of them private and he had done the same in L.A., so he decided to play along even if she failed to mention Jade's production that he was credited as Technical-Producer. "Thank you… I can't take all the credit. Tori is quite imaginative with her writing and she was the co-director. Cat, Robbie and André are fantastic actors and I don't know how we could have done it without them."

Sam commented with a hint of annoyance in her voice, "Are really going to just sit here and do this? Try to have a conversation as if nothing happened?"

"Sam," Carly admonished the blonde.

Freddie turned his attention to the blonde and leaned over to look the blonde straight in the eyes. He whispered to her in a cold tone, "Apparently we are, unless you want to pick up where we left off? With you bleeding on the floor and unconscious."

She hissed out, "That's only because you sucker punched me."

Freddie snorted out with a smirk, "You threatened my girlfriend after dislocating my shoulder with a sucker throw, so pardon me if I didn't feel the need to fight by Queensberry Rules."

The blonde frowned deeply. "You called me a bitch."

He rested his left forearm on the table and leaned over to look her straight in the eyes as he hissed back, "You are a bitch—" He raised a finger and pointed to her black eye and Band-Aid then continued, "—and it looks like someone else has had enough of your bitch behavior too."

Sam glared at him and clenched her jaw tight.

Freddie tightened his left fist ready to backhand her if she tried anything.

Carly hissed out loud enough for them both to hear her, "Please stop, the both of you."

Freddie turned to the brunette and snorted out with a breath, "Once again, defending the indefensible when it comes to Sam."

"I'm not taking her side; I just don't want a fight in the middle of the Groovy Smoothie. You two can go at it all you want and as long as you want as long as there's no blood, but please not here. Can't this place just be neutral ground?"

Freddie stared at the brunette and read from her eyes that she was desperate not to have a repeat from their last encounter. He actually readily agreed with the sentiment as he didn't fly up here for a rematch with either of the girls. He gave her a slight nod then looked back at Sam and snorted out, "I have no patience for you. You start something and I'm sending to you to the hospital, because I know you would do the same to me."

Carly spoke up as she gave Sam a sharp look, "She's _not_ going to start anything."

The blonde apparently had the decency to quickly turn her attention to her smoothie.

Freddie commented lightly, "So you've finally decided to yank on her leash when it comes to me? Mmm… interesting." He followed with a sip of his smoothie and giving Carly a guarded expression.

Sam growled out, "Stop making dog comparisons about me."

"Is that a request? Like when I asked you to pull back on the fire escape? What was your answer to me?"

Carly whispered desperately, "Please."

The pair eyed each other one more time then nonverbally agreed to stop. Freddie blew out a breath then looked to Carly, "Fine… I've saw a few replays of iCarly. I don't watch the show live; I work at the local Pear Store on Friday afternoon and evenings… have to pay the rent and all. You're still hilarious and Sam… well she's Sam. Whoever you got to do the camera work is doing a fine job." A part of him wanted to tell her that she looked sad on camera, but she tried to support him with his play, he thought he could at least return the favor. Kindness for kindness even if he wasn't sure she was genuine in her effort. '_Whether be damned for whom he was than to be damned for whom he wasn't_' he had told Jade months ago and it looked like he was still holding on to that belief.

"Thanks, but ah… you pay rent? I thought you were living with Jade?"

"I don't… I don't live with her… I have my own room and I pay rent. Co-habitation is a big no-no."

Sam asked with a hint of sarcasm before taking a sip of her smoothie, "Isn't there a rule against premarital sex for you? You had no problem breaking that one, so why the concern over this one?"

Carly shut her mouth tightly and her eyes widened as she feared Freddie's reaction to the blonde's taunt.

Freddie looked to his smoothie and his mind went back to Saturday night with Jade in his arms and he laying her down on his bed, but stopped from going further than she wanted that night and the reason why he stopped… still trying to figure out why he stopped. "You still never proved that happened."

Sam snorted out with disbelief, "Carly found her with your shirt and boxers on when she answer the door to your hotel room."

Freddie smirked confidently as he met the annoyed blonde's eyes. "How many times have you slept over at Carly's and wore her clothes the next morning? Should I be assuming something is going on with you two all these years?"

Sam frowned deeply at him.

Carly asked with a mixture of hope and uncertainty, "So you didn't?"

He looked back towards the brunette and gave her a lopsided smile. "I already told you it wasn't any of your business either way. How about you respect that?"

Carly pursed her lips then gave him a slight nod. "Fair enough."

Freddie was surprised at how easily she let it go when comparing the last time they spoke on the matter. He cleared his throat and gathered his wits then asked, "Well if we're done rehashing old wounds we were trying to avoid in the first place, is there any interesting news going on around here?"

Sam was the first to speak, "T-Bo got kicked out last night from upstairs by a health inspector."

Carly spoke up with a higher pitch tone of regret and disbelief, "He slept on a raft… in a pond last night."

Freddie asked with genuine concern, "So what is he going to do?"

"We don't know… wait, doesn't your mom have a spare guest room?"

Freddie narrowed his eyes on Carly and replied slowly, "Yeah, it's by my old room."

The spark in Carly's eyes returned that Freddie had saw missing on-line and while speaking with her returned as she asked, "So maybe she could rent the room to T-Bo?"

Freddie took a quick sip of his smoothie then shrugged a shoulder as he replied, "I guess I can talk with her about it, but she might think he's a little weird."

The brunette gave him a hopeful expression, "We could clean him up, try to make him a little more normal for your mom."

"That might work."

The ringtone of Carly's phone sounded, indicating that she had received a text message. She quickly dug in her jacket pocket and pulled out her phone to read the message. She grinned then happily announced, "Oh, it's Kyle."

Freddie blinked at the unfamiliar name then looked to Sam for an explanation.

The dirty blonde casually answered the unasked question, "He's a guy she met yesterday."

Freddie raised a quick eyebrow then looked to the brunette who quickly continued in a happily frantic pace, "He wants take me out to some movie tonight and I only have four hours to get ready." She stood up and started "I got to go—" then frowned as she looked to the pair, but particularly Freddie. The pair stared at each other for a few moments before Freddie answered with a supportive smile, "Go get ready for your date. You'll see me again before I leave."

The remark actually made her frown then smiled at him for his wishing her of luck as she turned and heading out the door.

The brown eye teenager looked to his unwanted companion and sighed, "Well, let's go help T-Bo." He spun in his seat and headed for the counter with Sam instantly trailing behind him.

"Hey, T-Bo, we need to speak with you for a second," Freddie gave an upward nod as he called for the manager.

"Freddie, I'm kind of busy right now,"

"Do you want to sleep on a bed or raft?"

T-Bo raised an eyebrow.

* * *

><p>"A guest room for me with its own bed? And a window?" T-Bo pointed to himself and spoke happily as the trio gathered in the back of the establishment.<p>

Freddie cracked a smile as he answered, "Maybe, my mom needs the money and I would feel better if someone was there so she won't be by herself."

Sam pointed out, "She made a bad chicken investment."

"Right, I heard her chickens couldn't…" T-Bo started making circular motions with his pointer fingers.

"They won't fuck!"

Sam looked to Freddie shocked at the choice of words he used. "You really did sleep with her?"

Freddie spared a glance towards the dirty blonde. "Still none of your business either way."

T-Bo motioned towards his face as he asked, "That gothic looking chick you're with?"

Freddie rolled his eyes, "Anyway…"

T-Bo looked back to Sam and Freddie. "Let's go talk to your mom about my new room—" then started to head for the back door of the Groovy Smoothie.

Sam raised a hand stopping him in his tracks. "Not so fast."

Freddie followed up, "Before we speak to my mom, we need to make a few—"

Sam finished, "—changes, with you."

T-Bo's brow furled, "Change what about me?"

The blonde answered, "Everything—"

Freddie finished with a nod, "—Pretty much everything."

West Residence  
>Thursday, September 29, 2011<p>

The dark brunette was in her room going over some homework after she and her mother finished an early dinner. She wasn't in any mood for conversation with the lack of Freddie's presence that seemed to always spur conversation between the West ladies, so she ate in silence and finished her meal quickly to go to her room. The solitude did not seem to help as she groaned in frustration as she tried to focus on the math assignment in front of her as she hunched over her work while sitting at her desk, but the material seemed to taunting her to dare try to solve any of them.

After another failed attempt to try to answer the math question, she dropped her pencil then pushed away from her desk in her chair and crossed her arms under her chest. She was a bright girl and the math class as a whole wasn't particularly challenging, so she rarely needed even Freddie's 'hot' math skills as Cat one time described his ability with numbers …_'He even makes math hot'_… to assist her in homework or studying.

She leaned back in her chair as she stared at the paper, but the assignment was not on her mind as her mind's eye traveled out of her room, down the hallway and to the empty bedroom decorated with computer hardware, Galaxy Wars figures and fencing equipment.

The dark headed teenager shook her head as she dispelled the thoughts then decided to get up to get something to drink.

She made her way to the kitchen and took a few moments to look through the refrigerator to find some sweet tea. After pouring herself a glass of tea and taking a quick sip, she headed for the living room to find someplace a little more communal to rest for a few moments.

She was about to flop in the recliner on the far side of the living room from the foyer of the house when she heard a vehicle pull up into the driveway. She wore a curious expression as walked to the window to pull aside some of the curtain to take a peak out to see the vehicle. The first thought that came to mind was the possibility of a taxi pulling up, but quickly disregarded the idea as she knew Freddie would have called if he was returning early and she would have picked him up. Her curious expression turned to one of mild surprise with a corner of her mouth lifting up as she pulled close the curtain and headed for the door as the occupant stopped and exited the '69 Black Cougar.

The sun was still out as she approached the front door and wore a peculiar smile as she opened the door to see Beck standing on the other side wearing a plaid patterned oversight over his grey athletic undershirt and a pair of his typical jeans and boots. "Hey," she greeted the actor with a surprised tone and expression.

"Hey," he answered back with his boyish smile. "I heard from André at lunch today that your mom got Freddie an old car—" he held up his tool box, "—and I thought I'd drop by and take a look at it."

Jade gave him a relieved smile and blew out a soft breath through her nose.

A few minutes later after cutting through and stopping by the kitchen to get Beck a glass of tea, the pair entered the garage from the kitchen entrance with Beck flipping the switch for the automatic garage door opener by the door to allow natural light inside as Jade held a glass in each hand.

The pair took a moment to look at the back end of the old muscle car then Beck gave a quick glance over the vehicle as he started to walk beside the left side of the vehicle. Jade took the opposite route on the right side of the vehicle. There was an old work bench and stool on the right side of the garage that used to belong to her father (one of the unforeseen advantages of her mother keeping the house in the divorce) which she took a seat and sat the glasses on the tabletop.

She leaned back against the workbench with her elbows resting on the top of the bench to prevent her back from rubbing against the edge as he continued to look over the car. "Is this a way to try to score some brownie points with Freddie before you tow finally have your conversation with one another," she softly laughed off, but internally was quite worried about the outcome of such a confrontation.

Beck was just past the front of the car and dropping off his tool box in front of it and was just reaching the point of standing in front of her when he glanced over and cracked a smile. He spoke like he wasn't all that concern, "Maybe… then there's the fact you're going to be riding in it, so I have a very good reason to make sure she runs."

She chuckled, "That too."

He nodded towards the car as he commented, "He could really turn this into a nice car."

Jade pushed off the bench to sit up straight as she quickly realized that her posture was not all that comfortable. "Freddie was going to start on it when he got the chance."

Beck raised an eyebrow as he tore his eyes away from the cursorily inspection of the car to look at her. "Freddie's into cars?"

The dark brunette shrugged a shoulder as she answered, "No, but he was going to learn. He was going to put in the same effort he knows about all his technical stuff into learning about cars."

The taller teenager smirked as he started back around the front of the car so he could enter the car through the driver's door. He followed up his question with a comment as he popped the hood then stepped out of the vehicle, "We all have to start somewhere."

Beck began looking over the engine to see if there was anything that was apparently wrong or defective. After not noticing anything, he pulled off his over shirt and threw it on part of the workbench then started a more thorough job inspecting the engine.

Other girls in the same position as she would be taking a particularly long notice at him with his grey athletic undershirt and she had suspected the ladies had done the same behind her back when he had worked on Robbie's car before it was stolen (and of course she would still agree about Beck's physical attractiveness), but her mind drifted to the times seeing Freddie when she saw him with his undershirt. One particular moment came rushing to the forefront of her mind was the morning after their night and he went to his dresser to put on a black undershirt. She remembered how well she thought he wore the shirt over his muscular shoulders. She was subconsciously gently biting her lower lip as she did two months ago.

He looked to her with a raised eyebrow. "Did you just groan?"

"What?" she answered as she quickly pulled her thoughts back to the present.

The taller teenager's brow furled and gave her a half smirk. "It sounded like you just groaned."

She pointed to the Charger. "Squeaky shocks from your shifting weight on it."

"Okay?" he answered in a tone that suggested that he questioned her explanation, but he didn't really have any other explanation to challenge her assertion.

Jade picked up the sweating glass and took another sip of tea to help calm her nerves as she really didn't want to go down that trail of thoughts for the moment with Beck's presence.

Beck reached down and looked through his tool back for the correct socket for a few seconds then back under the hood to check a bolt. As he was completing that task, he whispered, "I'm sorry I upset you… during our text fighting." He looked over his shoulder and gave her a bashful smile.

She sat the glass down on the workbench on her right back side then wrapped her arms around herself and nodded with a hesitant smile on her face. "Well, I know I had to upset you with some of the things I text you… I know a few times that was exactly what I was trying to do when you said certain things."

He gave her a soft chuckle, "I forgive you."

The dark brunette lifted a corner of her mouth as she tilted her head to the side.

The actor had his head back under the hood as she asked, "So Freddie's coming back Monday?"

'_I'm trying to keep my mind off of him for the moment!'_ her mind screamed at her former boyfriend, but she calmly replied, "Hopefully Sunday night, but yeah. It's just a weekend trip."

He looked up from under the hood and asked with a hint of curiosity in his voice, "Why didn't you go with him?"

"It involves the reason why he went up now in the first place,"

He gave her a concerned expression, "So is everything really alright?"

"Hopefully. His mom's not sick or anything like that if that's what you mean,"

He asked hesitantly as he looked back to another part of the engine, "Something about chickens?"

She waved him off. "I don't want to get into that."

He shrugged a shoulder and cracked a smile. "Not a problem… how do you feel about him going back without you? I mean, no point in dancing around the issue, he really can't avoid facing Carly and Sam."

The singer answered him confidently, trying to keep the slight tremor out of her voice, "I'm not worried."

"You're not?" he asked in a tone that seemed to surprise even himself.

"No, he can handle himself just fine."

The taller teenager turned and rested his right thigh against the car and partially sat on the end. "I wasn't exactly talking about a physical fight between him and Sam. It's been what? About two months since everything happened between them? You don't think it's going to open up some wounds that might now just start to heal?"

She broke eye contact and looked down at his black boots that he had crossed one over the other. "He was going to have to face them sooner or later, either during Thanksgiving or Christmas when he went back up. He'll deal… he's been dealing."

He gave a noncommittal shrug of his shoulders then hesitantly suggested, "Then in that case, I wouldn't hazard a guess with Sam, but Carly just might surprise you. She might have learned from her mistakes with her friendship with Freddie."

The pale teenager cocked her head to the side and looked to him as if he was serious.

He gave her an awkward grin as he countered softly, "Call it a hunch. She seems like the more down to earth one and maybe she's reflected on what happened since he's been gone. They may not be us, but they might come to some kind of peace between them one day… maybe a little forgiveness."

Jade snapped back sarcastically, "Yes and I could become a vegan one day."

The Canadian-born actor snorted out a soft breath and slid off the car then looked back under the hood. He was checking the battery connections when he commented casually, "I hope you don't mind me asking, but how does it feel being apart for the first time in months? Just saying you get up in the morning together, you go to school together and you finally end the day one way or the other at the same place."

"We're not joined at the hip like we—" She paused at seeing the shift in his posture as he leaned over under the hood and he completed the thought in his mind.

The dark brunette cleared her throat, looked down for a moment then back up to meet his eyes. She answered him in a deliberate manner, "Yes, we go to school together and we hang out a lot in the afternoons if we're not involved with something else, but we have our individual times. We both have a place to get away from it all that is private for one another. We do spend time apart from one another while still being in the same home, but… I do miss his presence not being in the house."

The fluffy haired teenager gave her an understanding nod and whispered, "I can relate… a bit."

Jade tilted her head up slightly then downward as she tried to give him a supportive smile.

He cracked a smile of his own then looked under the hood. He checked a few more quick connections then blew out a breath and lowered the hood. He glanced to the dark brunette and announced cheerfully, I think I'm done. He sat one of the socket wrenches back in his toolbox then Jade stood up from the stool tossed him the keys with a grin on her face.

He caught the keys then walked around to see how she would start. Freddie and Jade had started her up after dinner that night Mrs. West gave her to him and she seemed to run fine to the dark brunette's ears, but Jade would admit that she was a little curious to see if Beck had a magic touch in getting the car to run smoother.

Beck cracked a grin as the engine purred and lowered his head down slightly so he could look out of the passenger window to meet her eyes. "I can't promise how long that will last, but she'll run."

"Thanks," she whispered as he turned off the ignition and got out of the car.

He gave her a boyish smile and a nod of his head as he walked around to have a seat on the fender facing her. "Not a problem."

Jade's smile became larger as she handed him his glass of tea.

He took a sip of tea and the pair enjoyed each other's silent presence for a few minutes.

The dark brunette had her eyes close as her mind and heart had a moments rest from missing and a little bit worrying over Freddie, but that didn't last long as Beck broke the silence with a guarded tone, "He doesn't kiss you."

Jade opened her eyes and blinked at the randomness of the comment. She cupped the still cold beverage in her hands and turned her attention fully to ask, "What?"

He took a deep breath and maintained eye contact with his ex-girlfriend. He slowly let it out as he answered, "In public. Freddie doesn't kiss you in public. I don't know and don't want to know what you two do in private, but I've only seen you two kiss once and it was after Tori and Freddie's play with you initiating it and he didn't look particularly thrilled with it. That's not the only thing I've noticed. You don't hug each other, you're lucky if he holds your hand. There's really no public affection between you two. If people didn't already know, they wouldn't necessarily think you were together. They'd think you're like Tori and André."

Jade frowned as she tightened her grip around the glass. She looked down as she didn't want to think about what he was verbalizing. She had found a moment of peace and now he was slapping her in the face (intentionally or unintentionally) with something that she finally had to admit had started increasingly troubling her, because it wasn't just the public displays of affection but the priv—

She shook her head then put a deep frown on her face as her emotions flared and she looked to Beck.

His eyes widened and he swallowed nervously as he realized that he may have just crossed a line.

She nearly growled out at him, "I'm not talking about this with you."

He gathered his wits quickly and gave her a disarming smile. "Didn't expect you to, but you should talk to him about it… please don't repeat our mistakes with him. If it's a problem, talk about it. Don't sweep this potential problem under the rug like we did ours."

The sudden flare of annoyance and anger that Beck's point had brought on died out as quickly as it was born.

He gave her a warm smile then took another sip of his tea. Once he finished his swallow of the sweet liquid then stood up to place it on the workbench on Jade's right. "I think I'll be going. Thanks for the tea. I hope you keep in mind what I said." He leaned over slightly and gave Jade a soft peck on her right cheek then grabbed his shirt resting at her right just passed his still glass.

He quickly through on his shirt and turned to pick up his toolbox as the dark brunette looked on him with a mix of bewilderment and appreciation. Beck looked over his shoulder and gave her one last smile. "I hope she runs good for him… I'll see you tomorrow." He left the pale teenager sitting in silence as his words and her own suppressed feelings collided.


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Note: Hello everyone. Wow, this chapter took me far longer than expected to write. I hope you enjoy it and that I didn't short change anything in it. Don't be shy about how you feel. Thank you all for your continued support. Also, I am aware of the upcoming Victorious episode about Beck and Jade. I'm looking forward to seeing it and if Dan actually addresses what I brought up about the couple in iActually Like Mean Guys and not something off the wall… my money is on something off the wall with that guy's track record. To the Bade fans, Dan is just trolling you like he's been doing to the Creddie and Seddie fans for years.

* * *

><p>Chapter 11<p>

Benson Apartment  
>Thursday, September 29, 2011<p>

The time on the small digital clock on the neighboring nightstand displayed about twenty minutes to midnight as Freddie lay back on his bed with his PearPhone against his right ear and his other hand supporting under his head on the pillow. "…so that's what happened today."

Jade whispered on the other end of the line, _"So everything is probably going to work out with your mom, you had a civil conversation with Carly and you didn't come to blows with Sam? I guess that's the best you could hope for. Beck guessed that Carly might have learned something since you've been gone. I had my doubts… I don't want to be a vegan."_

"Beck? A vegan?" he asked with the evident curiosity in his voice.

He heard a snort of a laugh on the other end then Jade answered, _"Yeah, Beck came over this afternoon. He heard from André about your car and wanted to come over to have a look at it. I'm not sure what he really did other than look over it and tighten a few things, but she sounds better than we started it the first time that night. Anyway, he brought up wondering if I was concerned about you going back without me. I told him you could handle yourself and just left it that you were dealing with all the baggage from Seattle. He turned around and tried to reassure me by telling me that maybe Carly could surprise me even if you and she were not like me and Beck. I told him I had better chance of becoming a vegan than that happening. I guess I was wrong."_

"Oh? That's an interesting surprise on both accounts. Did he really come over to check out the car or to try to reassure you?"

"_I joked that he was trying to get in your good graces with a few brownie points before you two talked and he agreed just a little, but he also wanted to make sure it was running since he knew I'd be riding in it. I think he really wanted the chance to tell me he was sorry for upsetting me during our text fighting and I got a chance to apologize for trying to upset him too."_

He grinned as he answered, "I'm glad to hear it, but I still need to talk to him about it."

"_Is that really necessary now that we've kind of settled going a little overboard with the text fighting?"_

He looked up at the ceiling as he tried to think exactly how he wanted to phrase what he was thinking. He finally spoke in a cautious tone, "I have to talk to him either way just to make sure everything is fine between us and thank him for looking over my car, but I'm still kind of upset that he upset you."

"_He didn't upset me that mu—"_

"_Jade_, he upset you enough that you to eat a banana and you hate bananas. That concerned me and it might be a little self serving and selfish, but maybe I just have to square that right for myself to let you know that I'll stand up for you."

He waited patiently as he heard only silence on the other end of the line.

"_You put Steven down; I know you'll stand up for me. _I know_,"_ she finished with saying the last two words as if she was caressing his cheek with her fingertips.

"Thanks. It'll be fine…" he chuckled before he finished, "…if she runs as well as you say then I guess I'll go easy on him."

He heard her laugh on the other end and the sound was sweet to his ears. He glanced towards the new clock on his night stand and saw that the time was ticking closer to midnight. "It's getting late and you have class tomorrow."

"_Yes it is…"_ he heard her mumble regretfully.

"I'll stay with you until you fall asleep," he offered with a warm tone.

He was probably just imagining it, but thought he could feel her smile on the other end as she responded in a tone meant to give him a slight poke, _"You are so sentimental, you know that?"_

Freddie grinned as he answered, "I think that's one of the things you like about me… and I want to hang on as long as possible as I've been trying to bury the feeling of missing you with keeping busy all day because it can be quite debilitating dwelling on it."

The Seattle native heard her soft laughter, _"I have a confession to make."_

"Oh?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

The wisp of playfulness in her voice dissipated and was replaced with a seriousness she usually reserved in public, _"I've missed you too."_

He softly laughed as he asked, "Then I guess we better make this last?"

"_I guess so,"_ she answered with the return of a little playfulness to his voice.

The pair spoke about nothing of importance for another good fifteen minutes as he heard her becoming increasingly drowsy on her end of the conversation.

When he finally heard silence, he whispered gently to not pull her out of her slipping to dreamland, "I'll see you Sunday afternoon."

"_Right,"_ she mumbled.

"Jade… I, you."

She mumbled, _"I you too,"_ then he heard her nod off.

"Night my Jadelyn," he whispered then pressed the end call button. Now he just had to sleep through another night knowing instead of being less than a dozen feet from her, he was more than a thousand miles away.

Shay Apartment  
>Friday, September 30, 2011<p>

The time was around ten thirty when Freddie hesitantly raised his hand as he stood outside of the Shay's apartment. After a few more seconds of debate, he finally knocked on the door. Carly had left for school hours ago of course, but he wasn't there to see the brunette.

The door opened a few seconds later to reveal a surprised looking Spencer. "Freddie?"

Freddie answered with a casual smile and tone, "Hey Spencer."

Spencer gave him a crooked smile as he spoke, "Carly said you were back."

"For the weekend," he clarified.

"Right… you want to come in?" Spencer asked with a motion of his hand towards the inside of the apartment.

Freddie thought about it for a moment then decided to accept the man's offer by stepping inside.

Spencer shut the door and walked past Freddie to head for the kitchen.

"Can I get you anything?"

"Nay, I'm fine," he waved off as Spencer was just reaching the kitchen counter. The teenager raised an eyebrow as he saw a large safe sitting beside and just in front of the counter. "I just came over to say thank you… for backing me that day at the ice cream shop."

Spencer had stopped at the counter and turned to rest his back against the edge of the countertop. "You're welcome… look Freddie, I'm sorry—"

Freddie raised a hand as he interrupted with a firm voice, "Spencer, just save it. I don't want to hear some apology that you've been shamed into given by your father. You're an adult and you saw what happened to me on a regular basis including what Sam did to me and did nothing. You are about the only person in this whole damn city that I really don't resent for it, but I don't want to hear an apology when you should have been sorry four years ago, so let's leave it at that for the time being."

The tall artist nodded his head. "Fair enough."

Freddie nodded with an apprehensive expression then motioned around the apartment, "How's the art?"

The lanky artist shrugged a shoulder. "It's going…"

"I'm glad to hear," Freddie answered with a smile. He glanced around the taller man and took another look at the safe near the kitchen counter on the living room side. He pointed around Spencer and asked, "What's the deal with the safe?"

Spencer grinned and motioned towards it. "I found it at the junkyard and bought it."

Freddie gave him a crooked smile as he asked dryly, "And you bought it for what reason?"

"Because anything in it will be mine."

"Will be? You haven't got it open?"

"Nope." The lanky artist looked over to the safe and narrowed his eyes on it. Spencer spoke in a manner that was a close to threatening as possible for the adult-child, "But I will defeat it. It will not deny me the treasure inside."

Freddie wanted to point out the fact that it was highly unlikely someone would throw a safe away, especially one that large, without checking to make sure they had removed everything of value, but he didn't want to burst the artist's bubble. "Good luck with that Spencer."

Spencer gave him a goofy smirk and answered, "Thanks."

He gave the artist a half smile as he commented, "I'm curious about one thing."

"What's that?"

"What happened to Sam?" He motioned towards his own face as he finished, "With the black eye and everything?"

Spencer frowned for a moment then answered with a momentary pause, "The way I understand it, is that she and Wendy decided to hit golf balls at the girls' soccer team during practice last week and they didn't appreciate it. They were able to chase Sam down and well…"

"The entire girls' soccer team beat the chizz out of her?"

The corners of Spencer's mouth turned downward and gave a quick roll of his eyes. "Yeah, pretty much."

Freddie snorted out and covered his mouth with the back of his hand from the soft laugh as he spoke, "You expect a soccer team to be able to run. I wonder if they used their cleats on her."

Spencer frowned at the teenager.

Freddie grinned as he continued, "Oh come on Spencer, it's a little funny that she finally pays for some of the chizz she dishes out on people. Isn't that called justice?"

"I think I'll refrain from commenting."

Freddie narrowed his eyes and shook his head with mild disgust. "That's the problem Spencer, you've always refrained from commenting on Sam's behavior.

"I can see you're still bitter," the tall artist cautiously commented.

The sarcasm dripped off Freddie's voice as he responded, "Be the world's punching bag for four years then get back to me on how fast I should get over being bitter."

Spencer gave him an embarrassed smile then raised his hands in defeat.

Freddie gave a quick roll of his eyes then asked, "So Carly's not covering for her anymore?"

Spencer cleared his throat then leaned over and rested his right forearm against the safe. "Dad forbids Carly from bailing Sam out anymore trouble that she gets herself into if she starts it."

Freddie raised a curious eyebrow. "I don't think the Colonel meant Carly to allow Sam to get beaten down."

"Sam started it, they finished it and Carly wasn't there when it happened. Sound familiar?"

Freddie cracked a somewhat embarrassing smile. "Vaguely," he answered with a hint of humor in his voice. "So Carly's listening?"

"It's either that or she's living with our Uncle Barry until she's eighteen then after that it doesn't matter since Carly would be on to college and—"

Freddie gave a quick roll of his eyes as he finished for the artist in a dry tone, "And Sam's going to be lucky if she graduates."

"Actually, some of dad's talk to her actually got through to her. She's studying and doing her school work."

Freddie's brow rose at hearing that statement.

"I know right, but she finally realized that college would separate her and Carly if she didn't have the grades to get in with her."

"How do you feel about that? I mean the threat that Carly could just be sent to live with your uncle?"

Spencer rolled his eyes to the ceiling as he gathered his thoughts then looked back to Freddie. "I can see dad's point of view."

"And what exactly is that?"

Spencer nodded his head from side to side for a few moments then answered, "Dad had his conversation with Sam while Carly was with the Dorfmans and he was quite blunt about everything to Sam: 'You want to go to Hell Sam, that's your choice and your business, but you're not dragging my daughter down with you'. Dad saw how much Carly's enabling Sam had cost her… namely you and he's determined to put stop to it before it costs Carly anymore. I heard it was Sam that ruined your chance for your tech camp and to any college you want and dad doesn't want Sam to cost Carly anything by how she acts. Sam either starts treated those around her like she treats Carly and start to grow up or he's going to cut Sam out of Carly's life as if she was cancer. Sam is still struggling to learn that as you can see from her face."

Freddie whistled then hesitantly spoke, "An interesting choice of words for him throwing in the cancer analogy."

The look on Spencer's face seemed to agree with the sentiment. "I think he picked those words specifically to help make his point."

"Yeah, but why the Dorfmans? Why not just ban Sam from the apartment? Or does he think you would just let her in anyway behind his back?"

Spencer gave him an embarrassed expression. "If I went behind his back, he'd throw me out and send Carly to the Dorfmans anyway, but he knows how Sam's mom is and he knew if he did that Sam would be worst off than she is now if she didn't have here as a sanctuary."

"So even if he sent Carly away, he'd let Sam still come over and mooch off you?"

Spencer took a deep breath then put on rarely seen serious expression as he answered, "Since the first time Sam came over when she was eight, it was _never_ my decision whether she could stay whenever she wanted or eat any of our food." Spencer gave a sad smile as he continued, "He told me one time that if mom was still living, she may not have ever let Sam go home that first time."

Freddie looked down at the floor and pursed his lips for a moment. He looked back up at Spencer and spoke with a guarded tone, "Your dad's a complex man, isn't he?"

Spencer grinned then chuckled for a moment as he answered, "Actually… not at all once you figure him out."

Freddie nodded and gave a small smile. "I'll remember that… well Spencer it was nice speaking with you, but I need to be going. I just wanted to drop by."

The artist smiled. "Yeah, so where are you heading? Are you heading back to L.A. today?"

Freddie turned and smirked at the lanky artist. He answered in a conspiratorial manner, "No, I'm not leaving until Sunday, but I thought I'd drop by the school… I'm… morbidly curious about what's going on. Later Spencer." The next moment he was out the door.

Ridgeway High School  
>Seattle, WA<br>Friday, September 30, 2011

The main office was surprisingly more than happy to give Freddie a visitor's pass when he arrived at the school. He had arrived about twenty minutes before Carly and Sam's lunch period, so he was waiting around during the current lunch period catching up with Shane and Wendy after a quick exchange of greeting with Ava's twin sister. Twins! his mind shouted before having a interesting little exchange with the girl with Ava's appearance (and fortunately she didn't hit on him as she was one of many that did initially after his accident) and wondered if Sinjin had met his girlfriend's twin.

Shane whistled then commented with a hint of disbelief as Freddie held up his PearPhone for the other teenager to see across the table, "Oh my God Freddie, so this is her? She is _hot_."

Freddie cracked a smile then pulled away his PearPhone and taking a quick glance of the picture of Jade. It was a slightly older profile picture from her Slap page when she still had raven hair. "Yes she is. I'm with a beautiful actress and singer."

Wendy was sitting beside Shane as she asked curiously before taking a sip of her milk, "And you're living with her?"

The former Tech-Producer clarified with a smirk as he slipped his phone into the right pocket of his blue sports jacket with the Hollywood Arts HA logo on the left side of the chest, "I'm renting a room from her mother."

Shane laughed, "So you get up in the morning with her, go to school then come home with her? When do you have your guy time?"

Freddie gave him an uncomfortable smile as he answered, "That's an oversimplification of my life with Jade and throwing in some underlining assumptions about 'getting up with her in the morning' and I do have my guy time. I have an outside life from Jade and a great group of friends."

Wendy spoke up, "Better than Carly and Sam?"

The question was a logical one to ask, but also a prying one, intentionally or not, so Freddie answered as vague as possible for them to draw their own conclusions, "I'm there and I have no intention of coming back to live here or back to Ridgeway. Does that answer your question?"

Wendy looked down at the table and looked somewhat embarrassed from her question. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Sorry? Yeah, you'll forgive me if I take anyone being sorry to me with a grain of salt."

The pair looked to one another as they had only speculation as to the real reasons why Freddie left Seattle as Carly and Sam had remained mum on the issue while Freddie's profile video only said he wasn't happy in Seattle anymore.

Mister Howard spoke up from behind Freddie, "Freddie Benson? You're back?"

The Seattle native turned in his seat to look up at the balding teacher. He smiled as he answered, "Surprise visit during a surprise visit home."

Mister Howard spoke in a dismissive tone, "Good, you'll be gone by the end of the day?"

"Yep and I'm happy too; I don't have to put up with a piece of chizz like you either."

Shane and Wendy blinked at the statement and the surrounding students that had kept a respectable distance away from the group started murmuring among themselves.

"Watch your mouth," he growled out.

Freddie cracked a grin as he countered, "Or what? You can't do anything to me, except annoy me a little bit."

Mister Howard gritted his teeth as he stared at the apparently smug teenager.

"How's the divorce coming along? I tried to pick the best picture that captured you and Miss Brigg's essence," Freddie asked with a grin plastered on his face. "After all these years, I just decided to say 'Fuck you' back. I know it was pretty petty, but you're just a bully and I wanted you to pay for it. So who's keeping the house?"

"We're going to see Principal Franklin right now!"

Freddie chuckled softly, "I'd love to speak with Teddy."

He looked to Wendy and Shane. "What? He's not my principal. Heck, at Hollywood Arts, I had to get use to calling teachers by their first names."

Mister Howard retorted, "This isn't Hollywood Arts or whatever school you go to."

Freddie leaned back against the table and smirked. "I know. It's a far superior school than this one."

Principal Franklin's Office  
>Ridgeway High School<br>Seattle, WA  
>Friday, September 30, 2011<p>

Principal Franklin leaned back in his chair and smiled to Freddie as he relaxed in turn in his chair. "I'm more than happy to allow you to visit Freddie, but I can't let you be disruptive and disrespectful towards the teachers—"

Freddie shrugged a shoulder, "I wasn't. He's the one that came up to bother me and started something as he always does because he doesn't like students. I just gave it right back to him this time… something you should have done something about years ago. You're supposed to be the principal and his boss, but you'll rollover to him and Briggs every time when they mistreat us." Freddie shook his head. "I've had a lot of time to reflect on a lot of issues, but I haven't figured out one thing: are you just that spineless or do you allow them to treat us that way so we can look to you and love you as the alternative?"

Franklin took a slow breath and subconsciously adjusted his suit jacket.

The brown eyed teenager waved him off. "I really don't expect an answer."

The Tim Russ look alike cleared his throat and spoke in an apologetic manner, "I'm sorry that you felt that way going here and that it may have been a reason you decided to leave."

Freddie blew out a quick breath before answering, "Well since you let everyone including some teachers treat me like shit, I came to the realization that my best option was to leave."

Principal Franklin looked down at his desk and cleared his throat before replying, "I'm truly sorry about that Freddie."

Freddie snorted out as he leaned back in the chair and spoke in a dry tone, "You're sorry." Freddie shrugged a shoulder as he continued in the same tone, "Spencer's sorry, Carly _might be_ sorry, everyone is sorry now, but you were all the same people that made my life miserable or stood by and let it happen. Where were you all the times Sam physically assaulted me at school for the last four years? Where were you when Briggs or Howard would harass me without consequences? Where were you when every school club was allowed to kick me out just for thinking Fred wasn't funny?"

Freddie shook his head. "Sorry Teddy, every body's apologizes ring too hollow to me right now. I think people are just too scared that I'll go into details about why I wasn't happy in Seattle and it would embarrass them."

"I can't judge everyone else's intentions, only my own."

Freddie gave him a nod then stood up to finish his peace, "Well if you're sorry… then hold Sam accountable for what she does in the future… I mean really accountable and crack down on the bullies here and the teachers before the next victim of their bullying who just can't pick up and leave decides his or her only way out is becoming a suicide statistic or bring a weapon to school and really fight back." Freddie turned then headed out the door in silence without waiting for a response.

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Friday, September 30, 2011<p>

Jade decided to eat lunch alone as she picked angrily with her fork at her salad. She wasn't in the mood for any company and made it a point to sit at another table from the rest of them. She ignored the concern glances from Cat and Tori in her direction as her thoughts drifted back to last night when she and Freddie were catching each other up on their days. She may have told Freddie about Beck dropping by and what he had told her, but she did leave out one important detail: her former boyfriend pointing out that Freddie was never physically affectionate to her in public. At some point they had non-verbally agreed to keep their relationship private with only the occasional need for her to remind some of the female population and one or two of the male population of the school that Freddie wasn't on the market, but she now had to face the fact that Freddie held back in public with her.

The thought started to anger her as she started poking her food harder with her fork as she didn't understand the motivation for his behavior and if it was some kind of sign that there was a deeper problem to their relationship. She would have continued to stab at the defenseless salad, but she caught movement from the corner of her eye. She looked up to see Dusty having a seat across from her wearing a grin on his face and sunglasses over his eyes.

"No," she spoke in such a firm voice that it was nearly a command.

Dusty smirked as he crossed his arms in front of him and rested them on the table. He came back at her sarcastically, "This isn't the Deep South in the sixties; you don't tell me where I can or can't sit."

The dark brunette gave a deep frown as she narrowed her gaze upon him.

Dusty snorted out dismissively her eying him then ignored her continued stare as he casually made his point, "I saw you and just wanted to tell you that your short film is on fire on SplashFace along with your profile on TheSlap is being swamped. I was hoping you'd pass on the fact to Freddie before he got back that it's the same for his play and profile. It looks like he's going to be taking iCarly head on at this rate and come out on top. You sure got people's attention with your film. I personally thought you were great."

Jade looked down at her food and cleared her throat. Freddie taking off suddenly and him being gone yesterday, she hadn't given it much thought that Dusty was suppose to put up her short film and Freddie and Tori's play Wednesday on the school's new SplashFace account. She spoke lazily and with a little bit of shame,

"Well… thanks."

He gave her a small smile. "You're quite welcome… and that you were really hot as Snow White."

Her head snapped up and gave him a look of mild annoyance.

A corner of Dusty's mouth rose as he countered, "Don't give me that look, that was exactly what you were going for and don't try to insult my intelligence in trying to deny it. I didn't think it distracted what you were trying to accomplish with the performance, but enhanced your spin on the character and tale. It was edgy without parodying itself."

Her mouth finally broke into a partial smile from the compliment that didn't appear to be some lame attempt to flirt with her as Sinjin had attempted the last time she decided to sit by herself during her first breakup with Beck and if this was an attempt, Dusty was sure had a strange way going about it. "Thanks."

He nodded his acknowledge this time then stood up. He looked down with a smile as he spoke, "Well, I just wanted to let you know all that and that I can't wait for your next performance. See ya West." He turned and headed off to get himself some lunch.

She let herself smile at that her and Freddie's works could take on iCarly head-on and that when he got back he would know he was just as capable without Carly and Sam. It was turning into a mixed bag of a day, but that was far better than how she felt about the rest of the morning. All she had to do now was get some real food for lunch as she got up from her seat and let the thought cross her mind, _'How does Liz Gillies do this vegan thing?'_

iCarly Studios  
>Shay Apartment<br>Seattle , WA  
>Friday, September 30, 2011<p>

Freddie quietly entered the studio and gave a nod to Brad as he was double checking something on his laptop then looked over his camera. It was a surreal feeling being back here and watching someone else do his job (or attempt to do his job depending on where your opinion fell on the quality of the show since he left). As he stepped further inside the studio a number of memories were quickly brought back that frankly he didn't want to deal with at the moment and a part of him never wanted to deal with them.

"Hey," Carly called out as she was sitting in a beanbag chair with a book in her hand and various papers around where she was sitting.

He raised an eyebrow at the sit of what looked like her furiously studying despite it being just minutes before the show on Friday night and she would have the entire weekend to study if she had a test on Monday.

She closed her book and sat it beside before standing up and brushing some hair out of her apprehensive looking face.

The former Tech-Producer gave her a quick nod then explained his presence, "I just wanted to wish you luck with tonight's broadcast since I didn't get a chance to see you at lunch today."

"Okay..." Carly awkwardly motioned towards the center of performing area of the studio where the beanbag chair was still sitting with the array of papers as she offered, "You're welcome to appear on the show. You could say hello to the audience or tell people about your play and Jade's short-film and where they can see it."

Brad spoke up, "I think that would be great. Your play was funny and that editing of your girlfriend's film was fantastic."

Freddie noticed the momentary tense reaction from Carly and slight grimace from Sam at the mention of the word 'girlfriend'.

Brad apparently realized that he may have stepped in something from the nervous expression that formed on his face. He lowered his head to look at his camera.

Freddie crossed his arms and gave Brad a sympathetic smile. He briefly wondered what it must be like for Brad having to fill his shoes and probably without the knowledge of everything that happened in regards to him leaving.

Carly asked hopefully, pulling Freddie out of his thoughts, "Well?"

The brown eyed teenager looked down and shuffled his feet for a few moments. He took another moment to clear his throat, "I don't want to give the impression that we're actually friends or that everything is alright between us."

Carly took a sharp breath and looked at him wide eye.

He looked back with an even expression. He didn't mean for his statement to be an insult to her, but there wasn't anyway he thought he could sugarcoat the reason why he didn't want to appear on the show.

Sam gritted her teeth for a split second then snapped, "Then why the Hell are you even here?"

Freddie turned his attention to the irate blonde and gave her an even expression, "I told you, wish you luck because I didn't get to see you at school."

Sam spoke with a chilly voice, "If you don't want to be friends or make people think everything's alright, why would you even want to see us at school then?"

"It would have been rude to show up and not at least speak to Carly."

"And me?"

Freddie narrowed his gaze on the blonde. "You? Sam, I hate you, okay? I _hate_ you and why would you care?"

Sam deeply frowned and snapped back, "Well I hate you too."

"Too?" Freddie chuckled out then continued to laugh for a few seconds causing Carly and Brad to put on concerned expressions. Freddie blew out a breath then refocused his attention to the dirty blonde. "You hated me first. You've always hated me even when you wanted me to be your boyfriend for whatever janked up reasons you have."

"If you weren't so normal—"

Freddie snorted out, "'So normal'? Really? That's your excuse for being a bitch to me for the last four years?"

"Freddie?" Brad spoke up. "Would you please not refer to her that way?"

The dark haired teenager looked to the other dirty blonde with a mixture of surprise and confusion. He glanced to Sam then back to Brad who wore a strange look of pleading yet assertiveness that he wouldn't allow Freddie to say anything else along those lines without having to deal with the taller teenager in some manner. Since Freddie had no contact with Seattle other than his mother, he really had no idea about what the extent of Brad's relationship was with the girls other than their tech-producer, but he shouldn't have be surprised if a genuine friendship had developed between the web-hostesses and the former intern turned tech-producer. A piece of him found it ironic if it turned out after all the mess of the last few months and the lock-in that something could have developed between Brad and Sam.

The Seattle native took a slow breath then gave a quick nod to Brad and pointedly ignoring Sam as he stated to Brad, "No point in re-fighting old battles. We're never going to solve anything between us until she can genuinely admit she was wrong with what she did to me... and we need to remain civil enough to help out T-Bo."

Brad acknowledged with a nod then caught the time on his laptop. "We got about a minute before show time," he mumbled out.

Carly and Sam quickly gathered up the material off the floor and dumped it off set along with Carly tossing the beanbag chair.

The brunette looked to Freddie with an expression asking him one last time if he wanted to appear on the show. Her eyes pleaded then sad that he may refuse the offer, but he stood his ground with a slight shake of his head.

He turned as if to go, but stopped to rest his back against the wall between the red trimmed glass door and freight elevator. He wouldn't participate, but he would watch for reasons that he didn't fully understand.

For that half hour of the show as he watched from behind the camera, he could see the shine finally return to Carly's eyes when she would occasionally glance in his direction.

About fifteen minutes after the show, Freddie and Carly were sitting across from on another at the Shay kitchen table while Spencer continued working on opening his safe, Sam and Brad sitting on the couch watching some television program and Gibby eating some chocolate pudding in the black chair near the bookcase beside the door.

Freddie wasn't exactly sure why he didn't leave after the show. He had satisfied any courtesy he may have owed Carly, but he remained seated, rimming the top of glass sitting in front of him on the table with his thumb. He idly commented, "So what's with the studying before the show? Big test Monday?"

Carly lifted her eyes up away from her glass to cautiously meet his eyes. "I was studying for my date."

Freddie raised an eyebrow and asked slowly, "Studying for a date?"

She tilted her head to the side as she answered, "With Kyle… he turns out to be really smart and sophisticated."

"So you're going to try to pretend to be the same way?"

"Yes."

Freddie tilted his head down slightly as he looked at the brunette. "So you're going to try to start off your relationship with him by _lying_ to him? You really think that is the best way to start off?"

"I need a pretty boyfriend," she answered as that was explanation enough for her actions.

Freddie lowered his head and palmed his forehead as his elbows rested on the table. The sheer shallowness of the statement hurt his head. He had a brief moment of being grateful that Jade didn't come with him on the trip because Jade would have verbally and mentally ripped Carly apart with the childlessness of the statement. He took a slow breath then dropped his head to look the brunette straight in the eyes. "Don't do this, just don't. Be honest with him. If he really wants to give you a chance, it's not going to matter if you're not as sophisticated or highbrow, but if he doesn't then he's not worth it."

Her eyes narrowed on his as she doubted that she had initially heard him correctly then asked with just as much disbelief on her face, "You're giving me dating advice?"

"No, I'm giving you…" Freddie paused and looked to her sadly as he didn't know really what he was giving her. His face hardened and took a slow breath. He spoke in a slow and deliberate tone, "Do not start another relationship based on a falsehood; it's only going to end badly."

Carly quickly got up from her seat and he looked up at her with an even expression with the unexpected gesture. She attempted to speak with as little emotion in her voice as possible, "I need to study." She turned and headed out of the kitchen without saying another word with him closing his eyes and shaking his head.

iCarly Studios  
>Shay Residence<br>Saturday, October 1, 2011

Sam looked at her PearPhone with one hand and held a comically large fork in the other as she sat on one of the red stools from the Shay's kitchen counter at the small circular table on the elevator side of the studio as she shouted back towards their preparing area out of sight, "Hey, you're suppose to have T-Bo at your mom's in five minutes."

"Okay, here comes the new T-Bo," Freddie shouted out from the back.

Sam grinned as she looked over the well dressed man and commented, "Wow, looking good T-Bo."

T-Bo smiled and raised a hand as he corrected with a lower than usual tone of voice, "Please, call me Terrance."

"Yeah, use that voice in the interview. My mom would love that," Freddie commented and absently brushing some lent off of T-Bo's shoulder.

"Of course Fredward, I would be delighted to speak in this voice during the interview."

Sam commented idly as she examined the suit T-Bo was sporting, "Nice job on the suit Gibs."

Gibby cheerfully replied, "Nah, thanks, I would still like to lengthen the sleeves a little and give him more room in the rump."

T-Bo turned his head to eye the tall teenager and comment, "My rump is more than enough room, thank you."

Freddie motioned towards the door. "Alright, let's go and please don't talk about your rump in front of my mother."

T-Bo asked in his normal voice, "Why she doesn't like rumps?"

"Stop saying it," Freddie insisted as the pair went through the red trim door.

After making their way downs stairs to the main floor of the Shay apartment, they cut through the living room and reached the Benson door. Freddie turned to the taller man. "Okay, take your shoes off."

"Why?"

"If you want the room, trust me…" Freddie chuckled as a thought came to mind. "You're not Colonel Shay, so you're not getting away with it."

T-Bo frowned and slid his shoes off in the hallway.

"Better," Freddie replied and turned back to the door. He pushed open the apartment door and called out, "Mom, we're here."

"We certainly are," he commented dryly.

"Hi mom," Freddie greeted with a friendly smile.

"Shoes off, the both of you," she instructed with a slight nod of her head.

Freddie shook his head. "We've been through this: I am not taking my shoes off."

"Freddie—"

A slight chill slipped into the teenager's voice as he interrupted, "I can always take an earlier flight back."

Mrs. Benson shut her mouth quickly.

T-Bo kept his mouth shut as he didn't want to get involved in the Benson family business.

Freddie motioned to the taller man. "Mom, this is Terrance Bo. Terrance, this is my mother."

T-Bo offered his hand and Mrs. Benson accepted it as he started, "Pleasure to know you. I'm sorry to hear that your chickens are having problems doing the dilly-do."

"Well thank you." She motioned towards the couch for him to have a seat as she took her seat in the chair sitting cattycorner to the couch. "But I warn you, I will not just let anyone rent a room in this house."

"Please, ask me as many questions as you like."

"It might take a while," she answered with a tone that sounded as even she wasn't looking forward to what could be a long drawn out process.

Freddie clasped his hands in front of him and smiled approvingly. "It is alright, Terrance has plenty of time as long as he makes it to church by nine-thirty."

"Church on Saturday night?"

T-Bo smiled and continued in a complimentary (and still deep) voice, "It's just not for Sundays anymore."

The Benson matriarch smiled.

Shay Apartment  
>Saturday, October 1, 2011<p>

T-Bo grinned as he entered the Shay Apartment and asked in a quite joyful tone, "Hey, can I borrow a cup of sugar… neighbor?"

Carly and Sam were setting at opposite ends of the couch with their respective feet resting on the other's stomach.

Sam asked as she and Carly got up from the couch, "Your mom rented him a room?"

Freddie grinned and answered with a bit of cheer in his voice holding up the lease, "For a whole year."

"Just signed the lease," T-Bo shouted out with joy.

The group looked for a moment then started dancing in celebration.

"Hey… HEY!" Spencer called out grabbing everyone's attention from their dancing. "Who's ready to see the treasures that await me inside my super cool safe?"

Sam walked closer to the eccentric artist and snorted out dismissively with a wave of her hand, "Dude, you are never going to get that thing open."

"Am too, Socko got me a special C4 explosive charge from his cousin Boomer… Fire in the hole!" he shouted out as he pressed the button on his detonator and the others covered their ears.

The charge went off sending sparks and the expected noise of an explosion.

T-Bo went screaming out the Shay's door.

"It opened!" Spencer shouted at finally beating his nemesis.

"What's in it?" Freddie called out.

Spencer screamed in frustration as he pulled out a smaller safe.

Freddie cracked a smile along with the rest of them at the poor turn of events for the artist.

Benson Apartment  
>Seattle, WA<br>Sunday, October 2, 2011

It was just after noon as Freddie was once again standing at a side of a bed that he slept with a suitcase lying open and him backing his belongings. The trip had been far more productive and stress free than he expected coming back sooner than expected to his home city. The chickens had finally started doing the dilly-do and his sooner than expected encounter with the Carly and Sam didn't end in blood.

The rest of that Saturday night and today had gone without incident simply due to the fact that he soon left after Spencer discovered the second safe and had not left his apartment even to attend morning services with his mother. After Spencer got over his initial shock of the second safe, he finally decided to take a much needed break from his safecracking activities and get something to eat himself, leaving the teenagers to mostly fend for themselves. Carly had already eaten on her date, Sam just raided the refrigerator as expected with a gigantic fork in her hand and Freddie decided to go before the (temporary?) truce had been worn out. Also fortunately, his mother didn't make a big argument over the matter as apparently she continued to entrust her son to handle his own religious matters now after convincing her to let him live in Los Angeles for various reasons (including religious ones) in the first place.

He hadn't asked and Carly hadn't volunteered to inform him about how her date with Kyle had gone that evening, but from her expression before he left, he assumed that it did not go well. A part of him regretted that outcome for her, but at the end of it, she made the choice to go through a farce of a date. He had made his objections known about her behavior and she had disregarded his advice once again, so he just threw it on the pile of regret where she never took serious his opinion.

He was a little grateful that he wouldn't have to see Sam before he left as they had avoided any more confrontation that could lead to coming to blows. He would hate to have to remain in Seattle and longer than he had to just to clear up any trouble he might get into for putting her in the hospital, super strength or not.

Freddie was pulled out of his thoughts as he heard a knock on his opened bedroom door. He turned to see an apprehensive looking Carly standing at the threshold of his bedroom door. "Hey," she greeted him with a soft voice.

He packed that last piece of clothing then slowly turned to the brunette and answered just as cautiously, "Hey."

She motioned to the suitcase behind him. "Were you going to say goodbye?"

He cracked a bashful smile, which he thought was not the best gesture to make with his words, but… "Probably not… this… whatever we have right now will only hold so long before we can't avoid the elephant in the room. I'd prefer to be out of town before it has a chance to sit on me."

Carly looked to the floor and whispered, "Some would say that's running away?" She cautiously looked up to meet his eyes.

Freddie motioned a hand towards her and was only partially successful in keep some of his disgust off of his face. "This is exactly what I mean. I'm not rehashing this with you. I didn't come back to do this, maybe during Thanksgiving or even during Christmas break, but not this soon in trying to come to terms with you."

"And Sam?"

The brown eyed teenager narrowed his look at the brunette and whispered in a cold tone, "At this moment? Sam can go straight to Hell for all I care."

Carly took a sharp intake of breath as she hadn't heard that tone since his threat she was to relay to Sam if she ever attempt to carry out any threat to go after Jade.

"Maybe that will change in the future… hopefully that will change, because I don't want to hate her for the rest of my life... I really don't want to hate anyone, but for right now, that is how I feel."

The web-hostess nodded and broke eye contact as she was grateful that as harsh as Freddie was in feelings towards Sam, he made it clear those feelings was not something he wanted to keep. She took a quick breath and met his eyes so she could make her statement clear, "I'm not here to rehash anything either… I just… I just wanted to say that I am sorry… for everything."

Freddie took a soft breath as he studied Carly's warm brown eyes. He gave her a sad smile. "Do you realize how much things would have been different if you had said that to me just three months ago before I went to L.A.?"

"Yes, every night since you've been gone with the hope that my words and my regret would still make a difference when I had my chance to let you know how I feel."

Freddie blew out a tired breath then countered, "As much as I still care about you and want to come to some form of peace with what has happened between us, I don't know if I have it in me to forgive you yet."

The brunette slightly shook her head. "I don't want that from you right now."

Her answer threw him for a moment and was evident in his voice when he asked, "Then what do you want from me?"

Carly met his eyes with her brown eyes and blew out a slow breath. In a barely audible and desperate whisper, she answered, "I want you to stay."


	12. Chapter 12

Author's Note: Hey everyone. I saw 'The Worst Couple' and had some additional free time today, so I got inspired to finish this chapter and go ahead and post it early. I also want royalties from Dan after that episode :D I can't believe they told each other nearly verbatim some of the things that I had written them saying to each other in iActually Like Mean Girls about the problems in their relationship. I just called it six months early. I was sad for both of them. Well, on with the story… oh and don't throw anything at me if I don't cover something in this chapter, I have a plan with what I'm doing, so bare with me. I think it will have a greater emotion payoff for you as the reader.

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><p>Chapter 12<p>

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)  
>8100 Westchester Parkway<br>Los Angeles, CA 90045  
>Sunday, October 2, 2011<p>

Jade had her arms crossed as she waited impatiently in a seat for Freddie's flight to arrive. She glanced at one of the time and arrival/departure time overhead displays for the hundredth time. His flight was already overdue and she was quickly running out of any more patients for him to arrive. She couldn't help but flashback to months earlier when she was waiting for another certain somebody to arrive, but this time she didn't have Freddie to keep her calm as he was the one this time around she was waiting to come home. Oh how she hated irony at this moment and wish she could take a hammer to it.

_Home?_

She let her mind wonder on the subject she had avoided thinking on: did Freddie really think that Los Angeles was home? Did he think home was in Seattle and this was truly a temporary escape for him? If he did, could she hold it against him as she had been the one that had asked… that had pleaded with him to stay?

The questions were hard for her to ask, but even harder to answer. She closed her eyes and clenched her jaw tight as she tried to push the various answers coming to the forefront of her mind as she didn't want to deal with those questions on top of what she was already facing in regards to Freddie that Beck pointedly brought up on Thursday.

It wasn't her willpower that pushed the questions away, but a sweet, familiar voice, "Hey."

She opened her eyes and looked up to see Freddie wearing a tired smile with his right hand hanging on the strap of his blue book bag. "Miss me?"

The dark brunette immediately stood up and cupped his cheeks to bring him into a kiss. Public or no public, she was going to kiss her boyfriend.

He let go of the book bag strap and wrapped his arms around the small of her back and deepened the kiss.

She relief washing over her that he was reciprocating as she closed her eyes and savored the contact as they slowly traded dominance in the kiss for the few brief moments until they needed to breathe.

Freddie softly laughed as he met her eyes. "I missed you too."

She smiled softly then gave him a chaste kiss then whispered onto his lips, "Welcome home."

He whispered just as softly into her lips, "Home?"

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Jade wore an even expression as she traded out books from her locker for her fourth period class after finishing her lunch.

She should be happy. She _should be happy_.

Freddie was back with her yesterday at school and everyone was of course happy for him to be back. He had picked right back up where he had left off with his classes and everyone was eager to help him catch up with Sikowitz's class.

André had asked her just before Sikowitz's class to record a song with him for mid-semester project for his Advance Songwriting class after Tori had to back out to study for her exam to try to satisfy a class requirement to take some other class next semester. On any other occasion, she would have been slightly offended that she was being considered back up for Tori, but this was André and Tori, so of course the Latino/Caucasian would be his first choice. She was actually a little flattered that she was number two for the talented songsmith to record one of his songs. The dark brunette originally thought at lunch when Tori brought up what she was trying to accomplish with getting ready for an exam in two days was impossible even with Robbie's help until Freddie volunteered to help the actress study. Freddie hadn't taken the class, but actually op-out of it because the teacher teaching the class had been one of the supervising teachers for the summer workshop and thought it had far suppressed the class requirements to give him credit for it. She just hoped that Tori was appreciative of what Freddie was doing since he was still catching up on his own work from missing last Thursday and Friday.

Cat bouncing around most of the day with her Jupiter boots was not as irritating as expected and Beck seemed to be happy practicing for his photography class.

However… the nagging feeling remained from her talk with Beck even with Freddie's return and it was highlighted with Freddie picking up right where he left off in another area: avoiding most physical contact with her at school. There was also another concern that bothered her. Freddie avoided talking about what happened with the rest of the weekend other than the chickens successfully starting to mate and that the manger at the Groovy Smoothie was going to be renting a room from his mother.

She finished swapping out of her books when Freddie approached the teenager.

"Hey," he greeted warmly as he stopped and leaned against the neighboring locker and entering her personal space.

She turned her head and unexpectedly (even to herself) replied with a curt tone as she closed her locker, "Hey."

Freddie blinked at the tone, but decided to ignore it so he could convey what he had to confirm with her before he headed to a meeting with Lane. "So, after school tomorrow you'll record with André while I help Tori study, but whoever gets done first, do you want to wait or go home and comeback?"

Jade shook her head as she wore a look as if she could really care less about the details. She answered dryly as she adjusted her Gears of War book bag on her right shoulder, "André and I will probably get done before you, Tori and Robbie. She needs every second she can get."

He wasn't fazed by her tone and replied with a bit a humor in his voice as he cracked a smile, "That's true, so I guess you'll pick me up."

She shrugged her left shoulder and answered without much care, "I guess so."

Freddie's smile faulted as he nodded his head and tried to keep his voice up just as cheerful as when he approached her, "Okay, I'll see you after class."

She moved in for a kiss, but he slightly pulled back. She stopped and something just snapped in her head.

Jade pulled back to give him a hard glare and a deep frown then grabbed him by the wrist. She started dragging him down the hall and past the stairwell towards the janitor's closet as he wore a look of complete shock on his face as he asked, "Jade?" The movement and his voice caught the attention of the other students in the hallway and stairwell, but she ignored them as she opened the door and dragged him inside. She turned and closed the door behind them as he found his footing and looked to her as if she had lost her mind.

"What?" he asked thoroughly confused about what was going through her mind.

"What? _What?_" she nearly growled out.

Freddie answered back indignantly, "You're the one that dragged me into the closet."

She shouted loud enough to be heard through the door, "You're the one who won't kiss me during school!"

Freddie pulled his head back slightly and blinked at the outburst. His face fell the next moment and he swallowed nervously.

Jade blew out her irritating then palmed her forehead for a moment. She took a few calming breaths that seemed to take her anger away with them. She looked up at Freddie and swallowed down her visible apprehension before whispering, "You don't kiss me."

He shifted his weight from foot to foot for a moment, but held his gaze on her with a slightly clenched jaw.

She crossed her arms over her chest as a way of holding herself then continued with her head slightly down to avoid eye contact with his soft, but weary eyes, "In front of people. You avoid kissing me or hugging me in school or any real physical sign that we're together. The most you'll do is hold my hand and that's not even on a regular basis."

He remained silent for a few minutes and once she realized he wasn't going to speak, she continued, "I've tried to ignore it since school started, but Beck brought it up while you were in Seattle—"

Freddie slightly frowned at mentioning of Beck and a potential problem between them in the same sentence. "Beck brought it up? When?"

"That afternoon when he stopped by to look at your car."

The dark haired young man whispered cautiously, "You didn't mention that over the weekend."

She shook her head. "I didn't want to have this conversation over the phone... I really don't want to have it at all."

Freddie frowned and his eyes looked sympathetically towards his girlfriend.

"We…" She closed her eyes for a moment then looked back to him with a sad expression. She raised a hand and patted her upper chest with her fingertips as she finished with a whisper, "We can... we can _make love_, which we haven't done since the day we got together, but… you can't kiss me in public?"

Freddie started to speak as his mouth opened, but his voice box refused to function.

She shook her head once more and finished with a mixture of pain and anger, "I have to get to class." She turned quickly to reach the door knob then she was out making her way down the hall.

Freddie blinked in bewilderment of what just happened, but fortunately his feet were far faster in responding and started following her down the hallway.

"Jade!" he shouted out as he went after her.

She stopped and blew out a tired breath then turned to face the approaching dark haired teenager. "What?" she asked with a little impatience as he reached her.

Other students by their lockers or stairwell or just still lingering in the hallways between class changes stopped to watch the unfolding drama from the couple. They were nearly compelled to do so as one of Hollywood Arts 'it', but most secluded couples appeared about to air all their dirty laundry in front of them. It was high school, what other reaction would they have but morbid curiosity?

Freddie stopped right in front of her to look her straight in the eyes for a moment then cupped her right cheek with his left hand and slipped his right hand around to the small of her back to pull her against him and into a full blown lip-locking kiss.

She was caught off guard by the motion, but instinctively after a few moments closed her eyes wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and deepened the kiss. Both their mouths slightly parted as she returned the eagerness and particularly the passion of the kiss that instantly flashed the memory of them together in his hotel room just before being 'together'.

His left thumb tenderly stroked her cheek as he finished the kiss that started dragging out for several seconds.

The students watching what they thought was going to be a public fight watched the pair for a moment as they were completely shocked at what they were seeing as a possible start to a very heated make out session.

He pulled his lips away then rested his forehead against her forehead. He opened his eyes and patiently waited for her eyes to finish fluttering open so he could look into her blue eyes. Once they opened and met his soft brown eyes, he whispered bashfully while still stroking her cheek, "I'm sorry that I haven't been publicly affectionate to you. I have my reasons, but they're not worth it to make you feel this way."

She took a moment to catch her breath as he had literally stolen it from her. She asked barely above the sound of their breathing with a curious tone, "What are they?"

He took another calming breath then gazed into her eyes as he answered, "You'll have to follow me this time, but not back to the closet."

She softly replied with a curious tone, "Okay."

He took her hand and started leading her down the hallway.

Guidance Counselor's Office

Lane was offhandedly organizing the top of his desk as he waited for Freddie to arrive. They had missed their last talk due to his unexpected trip to Seattle and Lane was eager to pick up from last time of Freddie using Jade to avoid his problems than facing them. He didn't think Freddie could dodge anymore since he had to have seen Carly and Sam even if they hadn't exchanged words. He knew that had to bring something to the surface for Freddie and the guidance counselor was hoping they could deal with it before Freddie had a chance to bury anything again.

The door to his office flew open and he lifted his head to see what he figured was an anxious Freddie.

"Freddie—" Lane attempted to greet the Seattle native as he entered his office, but stopped midway as Jade was right behind him and holding his hand.

"You brought Jade?" his question stated the obvious due to the unexpected addition. Freddie had been so conscious of trying to keep Jade out of their conversations, that bringing her to one of their sessions was more than a surprise turn of events.

"Actually, we need the room," he answered quickly as he pulled his book bag strap over his head and dropped the bag next to the couch and led the pair to stand in front of the couch.

"Okay?" Lane questioned with a confused expression.

"Stay, go, I don't care, we just need to talk without being interrupted and people might start thinking stuff if we're in the janitor's closet any longer."

Lane's eyes went wide and he nodded his head as he answered and crossed his arms over his chest, "Okay… I'll just observe and help if I can." Lane took a seat in his wicker swinging chair to observe something he wasn't even sure was about to happen.

Freddie shrugged a shoulder then look to Jade. The dark brunette wore an apprehensive expression as Freddie took a breath then began, "Why am I not affectionate to you in public? I don't want to rub our relationship in Beck's face."

Jade blinked as that was the last thing she expected for an explanation and for a moment doubted that she had heard him correctly.

Lane followed suit with a blink as he wasn't aware that was a problem between the couple and Freddie's explanation behind it was equally shocking.

"What?" the actress asked in a tone that she doubted for a moment if she had spoke.

Freddie blew out a breath and shook his head for a moment to break eye contact from the momentary bewildered actress. "After the accident, Carly and I agreed that if she still wanted to be my girlfriend after I got my casts off, I'd be psyched about it."

She nodded along as her mind immediately went back to their conversations in the janitor's closet and his hotel room when he had skipped out on the celebratory dinner for them returning from Yerba. She cautiously spoke, "I remember you telling me that, but I don't understand what that has to do with this—"

"She didn't tell me no, she got involved with Steven."

Jade blinked as she tried to understand what he meant.

He slightly frowned for the moment then continued with in a regretful tone, "No conversations… no mention of what was said between us… not even an _acknowledgment_, she just her started dating Steven." He snorted out a breath and his voice filled with a little bit more anger and held up his right hand with his pointer, middle and ring finger held up, "I had to watch for _three months_ the girl I was in love with go on with some pretty boy that always intended to screw around behind her back. He shoehorned his way into then infected every part of our lives and I had to accept it without complaint. She'd just start kissing him and being all cutesy with him right in front of me and Sam without a second thought and it hurt like Hell."

He growled as if he was in physical pain for a moment as he dropped his hand, "God, even I started acting cutesy with them near the very end. She might as well have put a _knife in my heart and twisted the blade_. Three months… three damn months I had endure watching her give a guy she barely knew a chance at being her guy and act like he was going to be her future husband and say she _loved him_ when I nearly _died for her_ and loved her enough to let her go because I didn't want to take advantage of some overboard gratitude."

He took a deep breath and looked Jade straight in the eyes as he continued, "Seeing some of the parallels? I know what it's like seeing the one you love be happy with someone else and I endured the pain… as much of a problem I may have with how Beck treated you in your relationship, at the end of it all he still loved you and he _wasn't_ the bad guy, just a flawed one like everyone else. He knows what he lost… I just didn't want to put salt in the wound." He blew out one last breath and with it his building anger then finished in a tired voice, "He's just me on the other side of the equation… a guy who has to watch the girl he's in love with be with another man… so I think you would… I would hope you would understand me for giving him that consideration up until now, because it ends _now_ because I won't hurt you just to ease whatever pain he's going through."

Jade blinked and swallowed as she stared at his conflicted eyes with flashes of anger, resentment, sadness and regret. She broke eye contact and had a seat on the couch. She cupped her hands and rested her elbows on her lap as she leaned forward.

Freddie remained standing and palmed his forehead as he looked at her with weary eyes.

She finally whispered parroting what she had told him in his hotel room before she had convinced him to come with her Wok Star to celebrate, "You can't be anything else can you? Thinking about others…"

Freddie slumped his shoulders and blew out a tired breath, "I should have been thinking about how it was affecting you then just assuming you were okay with it as part of keeping our relationship private. I'm sorry."

"You're good Freddie, but you can't read my mind… I could have said something earlier," she whispered, but would not look up at him.

"Don't try to take any blame for my screw up."

She turned her head and looked up at him with a furled brow, narrow gaze and slight frown. "Don't try to take all the responsibility."

He answered with a slight edge to his voice, "Why not? I'm the one that was causing the problem."

Jade raised her voice to match his, "Because I don't want you to. What did you tell Tori when she was down about the bunny thing not working out for Sikowitz? 'Don't feel bad for trying to help someone'. That's who you are. Why don't you take your own advice?"

He answered with a short tone, "Because my actions hurt you and I'm not going to skirt out of taking responsibility for them, so I'm going to feel bad about it."

Her responded with a clip voice, "I forgive you."

Freddie clenched his jaw tightly for a moment. He finally hissed out, "Don't brush it away."

She answered with a firm voice as she was determined not to back down, "I'm not. You said you're sorry, I said I forgive you." She reached up and took his right hand hanging by his side and whispered again dropping her stance and replacing it with a tired smile, "I forgive you."

Freddie blew out a breath and let his shoulders slump as he look on to his girlfriend with wonder. The kindness and acceptance in her eyes were humbling. He nodded then was able to whisper out, "Thank you."

Her tired smile filled with life as it brightened and the gesture warmed his heart and soothed his weary soul.

The dark brunette's smile faded as she let go of his hand and rested her hands back in her lap. She took a slow breath and let it out. She focused on the worn leather chair across from the couch then began softly, "So, it's not me for you holding back in public then why won't you make love with me?"

Lane held his tongue as that bit of information of them at least maybe being sexually active at one point.

She kept her eyes on the table as she asked, "I know your family background, so is it due to your faith? If it is, you just had to tell me. I'd respect and accept that if that's the reason."

"If the Lord really has a problem with what we did that night then me and Him will square that away on Judgment Day. In the meantime, I may be slightly uncomfortable with it for that reason because I still hold that to be true, but that wouldn't be enough to stop me if we decided to continue, so it actually has very little to due to why I haven't been… eager?"

Freddie took a seat on the decorative carved table across from her. He reached over and rested his hands over her still cupped hands.

She finally lifted her head for him to see her blue eyes from his contact.

He took a deep breath then spoke with all the conviction in his heart, "But I'll tell you the same thing I told you the morning after. What was shared between us was precious to me and I will treasure it for the rest of my life. The only thing I would regret… _the only thing I would regret_ was if I had hurt you that night."

She visibly swallowed as she met his soft and open brown eyes. Her voice whispered out as if it was a ghost whispering out, "Then why?"

He took a quick, but deep breath then answered softly, "It finally occurred to me when we had a moment to breath in our relationship between me moving here and school starting… what kind of man would I be if I would make love with you, but I can't say 'I love you' to you? Shouldn't you have someone that can say that to you if they are going to share that with you?"

She slipped her right hand from under his grasp and raised it to his cheek. "What kind of man would you be? You are the same good man that I shared that night with because we couldn't find the words to express how we felt towards one another. I thought we were good or pretend we were good by ignoring the affection until the night after my short film, so that's why I tried to initiate us to… I really needed to express how I felt about you that night."

Freddie raised his left hand to rest over the hand covering his cheek then turned his face so he could kiss her palm as he closed his eyes.

Lane's voice broke the moment between them. "Why can't you just say you love each other?"

They both turned their heads to look at his serious expression as Freddie pulled her hand from his cheek and rested it with his in his lap. For the last few minutes of their conversation they had forgot he was in the room. They glanced to one another for another moment then Freddie spoke up meeting the guidance counselor's eyes, "Because as much as you might think we're rebounding with one another, we actually know what those words mean: 'I love you', but we haven't reached that point yet. Our feelings are still jumbled with our friendship feelings and the ones we still have towards Beck and Carly, but when we say them…"

He turned his head to meet crisp bluish/green eyes and she finished with a warm smile, "We'll know that it is real."

Her accepting smile brought a smile to his face as well and he said the first thing to come to mind, "I, you."

"I, you too," she whispered back then leaned forward to give him a chaste kiss. The couple rested their respective foreheads on one another and closed their eyes.

If Lane wasn't intruding in the couple's private moment, he sure felt like he was now, so he quietly slipped out of his wicker chair and out of the room. As he made his way to take care of the couple missing their last class as he knew neither was going to go to it, he started reevaluating his opinion about Freddie and Jade's relationship.

Main Music Room  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Tuesday, October 4, 2011

There was about fifteen minutes left of the school day as Beck was relaxing on one of the couches as he listened to some of the other handful of students practicing their singing or musical instruments. His last class if the day had decided to go ahead and end early and he thought he'd just relax with some of the other students that either had this period as study hall or just allowed to get in some extra practice time instead of going to class.

He caught Freddie slipping inside the room, but stopped just past the door enough for it to swing freely if necessary. The Seattleite glanced around and ignored the greetings from the other students, including Ava standing near the door, until he saw Beck then stopped to look the actor straight in the eyes. The taller teenager blinked as he looked back with confusion at the stern stare that the former Tech-Producer was directing at him. Beck stood up from the couch to stand opposite of the Seattle native across the room.

Those students that Freddie had ignored started whispering to the others as they realized that he and Beck looked like they were about to square off, especially with Freddie's expression and cold stare towards Beck.

Freddie wore a forced smile as he politely asked the rest of the students, "Could you give us the room for a few minutes?"

The students looked to one another, to him and back to Beck as they were unsure of what was going on or if they should yield to his request.

His jaw tightened for a moment as he directed his harsh glare to the rest of them. He spoke out in a tone no louder then his previous statement, but in a cool manner, "That was me saying in a polite manner to get the Hell out."

The students looked to one another again then quickly started exiting the room out of fear of getting on his bad side. They could feel as if the temperature had just dropped in the room and it was clear as day to them that the confrontation that they always knew was going to go down between the pair was about to start, but they wouldn't be there to see it.

Beck looked on with slight concern as the other students gathered around the exit and filed out.

Ava was the last one out and spared Freddie a concerned glance, which he promptly ignored; he turned slightly as he kept his eyes on Beck and closed the door after the last student was out. The corner of his eyes caught one of Hollywood Arts grey metal chairs folded out. He broke eye contact with Beck for just a moment to grab it and shove the top of the headrest under the door knob. He turned to face the taller teenager with an even expression, but a cold stare. "We're finally going to have our conversation and I don't want us to be interrupted."

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><p>Author's Note: PD31, you guessed right, so you get the virtual cookie. See everyone at the next posting this Friday.<p> 


	13. Chapter 13

Author's Note: Hello my dear readers. I hope you had a nice week. I had a busy one. Thanks to all of those that continue to read and review. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it and the dialogue I have with those that follow my stories closely. Well, on with the story… lucky Chapter 13

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><p>Chapter 13<p>

"_We're finally going to have our conversation and I don't want us to be interrupted." _

Beck gave him an even expression as he tilted his head slightly to the side. He spoke with a mixture of tiredness and disbelief, "Freddie, move the chair."

Freddie ignored him as he pulled out his phone from his pocket and directed his attention to turning off the pear product. Once the screen went dark, he slipped the phone back in his pocket and looked back to the taller teenager. Freddie finally answered him with a dry tone, "No. No more interruptions or anything else coming up to put this off anymore, we have things to talk about and we are going to talk about them."

Beck slightly shook his head as he looked on Freddie's determined face. "Fine. You want to talk, we'll have our talk. Where do you want to start?"

The Seattle native gave him a slight frown as he answered with his annoyance slipping into his voice, "I wanted to start with clearing the air about the whole text fighting thing and that I thought everything was cool between us and I was going to let the whole 'her eating a banana' thing go since you and Jade settled it then thank you for taking a look at my car until… _until_ I found you did an end run around me talking to _my girlfriend_ about _my relationship_ with her while I'm in Seattle, so how about we start there?"

Beck's tightened his jaw and let out a slow breath through his nose.

Freddie continued in a stern voice before Beck could reply to the question, "Should I assume that your motives were purely selfless in wanting to try to help us at what you thought was a genuine problem and you just messed up about how you handled it or… should I assume that you saw what you thought to be a crack in our relationship and you took the opportunity while I was more than a thousand miles away to," Freddie motioned with his right thumb, pointer and middle finger as if dropping something, "sow a seed of doubt in that crack and put a break in our relationship like plants can break pavement given enough time?"

Freddie raised an eyebrow and asked in a calm manner, "Which one should I assume Beck? Should I give you the benefit of the doubt?"

"Do you really think I would try to sabotage your relationship with Jade? That I'm capable of doing that?"

"I don't know, because I barely know you Beck!"

Beck's brow furled from what he thought was such an odd statement.

Freddie suppressed a growl he felt like letting out then spoke, "This whole transparency thing you supposedly got going on is a bunch of chizz. You play your emotions so close to the chest and act so laid back about everything with your whole 'cool guy persona', I really don't have a clue how to judge you. Maybe you are okay for the most part that Jade's dating me and you're trying to move on too or maybe you're pissed beyond belief about how bad you janked up to lose her and now you want her ba—"

Beck took a step forward and pointed his right pointer finger at Freddie, "Don't you lay this all on—"

Freddie a step forward as well and snapped back with complete conviction in his heart and in his voice, "You janked up!"

Beck recoiled from the outburst and Freddie didn't let up, "And Jade janked up and I janked up. We all janked up Beck!" Freddie threw out his hands and spread his arms in front of him in as he continued speaking, "That's why we're all here in the first place." Freddie dropped his hands to his sides and took a quick breath then started again, "We've been through this already. At Venice Beach during the summer? You decided to break up with her after like the millionth time you didn't approve of her behavior instead of working out your _many_ problems that have been staring you right in your damn face for the last _three janking years_, yet you decided to ignore them for whatever personal reasons. She decided to learn nothing from the first time you two broke up briefly and continue the same behavior until it slapped her in the face about how much it cost her. I allowed myself to think that it would be weird if my life wasn't chizzy for years to the point when the illusion finally broke that it didn't have to be that way, there wasn't anything left to salvage and my only choice was to leave Seattle."

Freddie took a quick breath then finished, "If you and Jade would have actually dealt with your chizz when you two got back together and I would have told Sam to kiss my ass after her openly insincere apology of her humiliating me on iCarly about my first kiss and all the other things she had done to me in the past and that she would continue to make me miserable, you'd probably still be happy with Jade and I'd be happy in Seattle whether or not I was with Carly, but none of us did that and this is the life we're living. But, but… maybe you don't like this life and you want to take your shot at that other life."

The teenagers stared at one another for a few seconds, Freddie with a cold glare and Beck with a reserved expression. The taller teenager was the one that broke the silence with a guarded tone, "My intention was not to break you two up. I noticed your behavior around Jade was odd—"

Freddie narrowed his eyes upon the actor as he asked incredulously, "In comparison to what? Have you ever observed how I function in a relationship?"

Beck answered back with an edge to his voice, "Well it was odd for her."

The former Tech-Producer clenched his jaw for a moment it took Beck to blow out a breath and run a quick hand through his hair. "You're right, I didn't face our problems when Jade and I were together and I didn't want a repeat of that with you two. I probably didn't handle it right since you were gone to—"

Freddie interrupted with a sarcastic tone, "Probably?"

Beck faintly shook his head then picked up where he left off, "Seattle, but I saw the opportunity to talk with Jade about it."

"You can always talk to her at any time. I've never got in the way of talking with you."

"Never?" Beck challenged.

Freddie pointed at the actor. "You couldn't be that blind to me making a B-line out of the airport as fast as I could when you got back so you and her could spend that afternoon together when you got back from Yerba, but you're the one that avoided seeing her afterwards. Cat showed up to the workshop without a problem. Tori showed up. There was nothing stopping you just from dropping by and hanging out. I have never discouraged her about being friends with you. I didn't interfere with your text fighting, because I wanted you two to work things out. I wanted you two to remain friends. Don't stand there and tell me that other boyfriends would be thrilled with the idea that their girlfriend would still be friends with their ex, especially that closeness of a friendship."

Beck snorted out a laugh as he pointed to himself, "So _you_ are doing _me_ a favor?"

Freddie smirked as he countered, "Not the only one."

Beck slightly frowned and did a pretty good impression of Cat without the highness of pitch, "And what is that suppose to mean?"

Freddie smirked for a moment. "I've already talked with Jade about this, so do you want to know why I wasn't affectionate to her in public?"

Beck slightly frowned as he thought that was slightly random. "The exact reasons aren't my business."

Freddie shrugged a shoulder. "Maybe not, but the reason does concern you."

Beck's uneasiness turned to one of confusion and mild curiosity as he raised an eyebrow.

"I wasn't openly affectionate to her because I didn't want to rub our relationship in your face."

Beck's brow deeply furled and he slightly frowned as if he wasn't sure he had heard the Seattle native correctly.

Freddie motioned his right hand towards the actor and started off with a sympathetic voice, "I know what it's like to see the girl you love with another guy and maybe an unwanted addition to your life in your circle of friends, so… I just didn't want to rub it in with having to see us all lovey dovey to one another like I had to watch with Steven and Carly, but…" Freddie's voice shifted into a cooler tone, "Since you pointed out that it was a problem for Jade and that is one of the things she wants from me then she's going to get it and I can't give you that consideration anymore. I'm not going to go out of my way, but I'm not going to shy away from kissing her or holding her just because you might be present, so if you see it and it bothers you then too bad. You suck it up and deal with it like I had to."

Freddie saw the flicker of emotion in Beck's eyes as the taller teenager clenched his jaw just a bit tighter to be noticed.

The pair started another staring contest as they were each looking at the other in a new light and each unsure what were each respective conclusions of the other.

Beck broke the tense silence first with a calm voice, "Fair enough… on all points. So… do you believe me or not?"

"I believe you even if the practical thing would be not to trust you after what I've been through, you're her ex and it might bite me later, but I'm going to anyway."

"We're good then?"

"Yeah… I've said my peace," Freddie motioned a hand towards Beck, "but if you have something to say about me, by all means, go ahead."

"Actually there is something I've been meaning to tell you since you moved down here, but I haven't gotten the chance," the longer haired teenager answered with a confident smile.

"Yes?"

"If you break her heart, I'll kick your nerdy ass."

Freddie smirked, but it wasn't a gloating or hostile one then he chuckled as he retorted, "I appreciate the sentiment, but Steven thought he could do the same thing, so good luck with thinking that way." The Seattle native shrugged a shoulder and replaced his smirk as he repeated what he had told Jade one time, "I'd rather cut my heart out with a rusty spoon than to break her heart."

Beck's smile turned into a curious one at what he thought was an odd turn of a phrase. He didn't ponder it long as it was Freddie's turn to ask, "We good now?"

Beck gave the slightest of nods as he answered, "Yeah, we're good."

As if the universe (or the Almighty) was gracious, the bell signaling the end of the day ran just after Beck finished.

Freddie snorted out and cracked a smile at the timing then started slowly walking backwards until he reached the jammed door. He turned and pulled the chair away from under the doorknob then called out as he exited the music room, "See you tomorrow."

* * *

><p>About ten minutes later after the release bell, Freddie was dropping into the passenger seat of Mrs. West's borrowed car with Jade already settled in the driver's seat.<p>

The brown eyed teenager immediately noticed her apprehensive expression on her face. He reached over with his right hand and rested it on top of hers resting on the steering wheel.

The soft contact caused the actress to turn her attention towards her boyfriend.

Freddie gave Jade a reassuring nod as he whispered, "We're good."

She cracked a relieved smile.

He leaned over and gave her a brief kiss on the lips causing her to grin into their kiss then he settled back in his seat.

The dark brunette broke into a full blown smile as she turned on the ignition so they could head home.

West Residence  
>Tuesday, October 4, 2011<p>

Freddie lay back on his bed staring at the ceiling with his head resting in his laced fingers and on his pillow. It was the first time he noticed stark whiteness of the ceiling. If staring at anything was going to clear one's mind, it was the purity and blankness of the lack of image in front of his eyes. His clear mind didn't last long.

Carly's voice whispered through his mind, _"I want you to stay." _

_Freddie snorted out as he turned back to zip up his suitcase, "I have a flight to catch." _

"_I'm not kidding!" _

_He turned to face her and snapped back with an annoyed tone, "I didn't think you were, but I really don't care what you want; it isn't about what you want, it's about what I want and I want to make my flight on time." _

_Carly whispered in a resigned tone, "You love her that much?" _

"Come on, we need to get in as many lessons as we can if you want to take Jade in your car for Friday night concert," Mrs. West called out from the threshold of his bedroom door and pulling him out of his thoughts.

He sat up in his bed to see the smiling West matriarch.

"I assume that you'd rather do that than spend anymore of the afternoon staring at the ceiling," she stated with a hint of amusement in her voice.

"You're right ma'am," he answered as he swung his feet to the left side of the bed and slipped back on his sneakers.

Ruby turned away from the door and called down the hall, "Jade? Freddie and I are going out for a driving lesson. We'll be back in an hour or so."

"'kay mom," the dark brunette called out from somewhere in her room and down the hallway.

* * *

><p>Freddie was driving with Mrs. West in the passenger seat of his Charger through the Wests' neighborhood on their way back to the Wests' home after the last hour of driving around various places to practice. It was a peaceful ride and he was grasping how and when to properly shift very quickly over the last hour and the previous afternoon. However, Freddie decided to break the silence while he still had time to talk to her in private, "Mrs. West, may I ask you a question?"<p>

"As an old friend would say, 'You may ask'," she returned with a smile.

Freddie cracked a smile as from the tone of her voice he could tell that she was playing with him. However, he decided to ask his question anyway, "Why are you helping me?"

She softly laughed as she answered, "Because you need to know how to work the stick shift."

"No, I mean… I mean with everything. Why did you invite me stay in your home when you barely knew me?"

"Would you believe me if I told you that I wanted the extra income?"

"No."

Ruby took a slow breath as she wore a tired smile. She looked out the windshield as she explained slowly and almost whimsical, "Why would I let some young man I barely know stay in my home regardless of how much my daughter might love him? Because you nearly died when saving Taylor and Steven's little girl's life… and you remind me of someone very dear to me that had to put his life back together after it came crashing down on his head just like you're doing right now when he was your age."

Freddie slowed the vehicle as he approached the last stop sign before the Wests' residence. He stopped the car and waited longer after the initial stop even though there was no traffic crossing or turning. He took and let out a slow breath as he kept his eyes focused ahead. He finally whispered with a detached tone, "Did your friend ever put his life back together?"

Ruby turned her head and rested her right cheek in her palm as her elbow was braced against the door. She gave him a comforting smile as she answered, "It took him some time, but yes, it all worked out for him."

Freddie took another few moments to stare out of the windshield and keep the car stationary. He finally nodded and cleared his throat, "Well, let's get back. I think I owe you by fixing dinner for us tonight."

Ruby snorted out softly then turned her attention to the front windshield as Freddie started on the last leg home.

Asphalt Café  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Dusty took a quick sip from his straw then asked as he looked through the lenses of his sunglasses to the former Tech-Producer sitting across from him at the table with Tori beside him immersed in a book studying, "So I wanted to talk to you about West's short play."

"What about it?" Freddie asked with concern lacing his voice then popped a French fry in his mouth.

The leaner teenager cleared his throat as he tried to properly phrase what he wanted to say then answered a few moments later, "We've noticed something that could become a problem."

"What kind of problem?"

Dusty rolled his eyes from behind his sunglasses before replying, "You know, she is getting a lot of hits for her film and let's be honest, it's partially due to you being the 'executive technical-producer' on it and that she's your girlfriend."

"And?"

Dusty cleared his throat then answered, "Well, it's led to a small, but very vocal group trashing her in the comments section for her video. I mean really trashing her as in: 'do you kiss your mother with that kind of mouth' kind of trashing."

"Oh?"

Tori looked up from her book and questioned him with evident confusion in her voice, "Why would people being doing that?"

Dusty gave her a patient smile and answered just as patiently, "Vega, there are a lot of people that are pissed off at Jade for thinking she 'stole' Freddie from Carly and Sam in more ways than one and they are taking out their anger on the comments section for her film. I'm surprised they haven't seen you as a threat and flooded your Slap page since you worked together on your play."

Freddie blew out a breath and shook his head. The fringe fans were out in force just because they didn't get their 'ship'. One would think they would just be happy that he was happy, but once again it was about what would make someone else happy, not him. He blew out a disgusted breath then asked, "What do you want to do?"

"I want start deleting the more vulgar comments at least. I'd hate to lock off the comments section entirely because of those jackasses. It'd let them think they actually had power to do anything."

The light brunette continued to look at Dusty with a confused expression as she asked, "Why didn't you talk to Jade about it?"

Dusty shrugged a shoulder as he palmed over the top of his soda. "There's no real reason; I just happened to see Freddie first today. I'll tell her what's going on when I see her or," he motioned to Freddie with his left hand, "Freddie could pass it on."

Freddie motioned back with his right hand and answered, "You have my blessing to do whatever you think is appropriate. I'll let Jade know about what's going on"

Dusty gave a slight nod of his head and cracked a smile as he answered, "Okay, we'll handle it and make sure we're not looking like we are censoring negative comments."

Music Room  
>Hollywood Arts High School<p>

The last bell for the day rang as Freddie entered one of the dedicated music rooms of the school… the same one that he had his conversation with Beck the previous day. "Hey man," he greeted the songwriter who was standing at his keyboard ideally playing a few keys.

André turned and greeted with a friendly smile, "Oh hey."

Freddie smirked as he looked around and needlessly asked, "Where's Jade?"

André played a few keys on his keyboard nervously. "I don't know, but… about Jade?"

"Yeah?"

The slightly taller teenager replied in an apprehensive voice, "Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't know if she's the right girl to sing my song."

"Why not?" Freddie asked with a curious expression.

He turned back to his keyboard and played a few more keys. "I don't…" he looked back to Freddie and finished, "She scares me."

"Jade scares you?" Freddie laughed out. He wasn't laughing at André, but at what he thought was the absurdity of the statement. He wasn't blind Jade's persona she projected, but he didn't figure that her friends would actually take it all that seriously.

"Jade scares everybody," he admitted like it was obvious to the world.

Freddie shook his head then began with a patient tone, "André… let me tell you something? She doesn't actually like pe—"

Jade came storming in holding a pair of scissors in her right hand and shouted, "I am going to kill him!"

André mumbled, "Oh?" as he watched the irate girl as he took a step back and bumped into the keyboard.

Freddie turned around to face her as she looked down at her grey handle scissors. She tried futilely to bend the ends back straight. Freddie shook his head and replied with a smile, "What happened?"

She looked to her boyfriend with a furious look in her eyes. "Sinjin sat on my new scissors."

Freddie raised his hands. "Okay, just take a breath."

She lifted the scissors up to his face and started shouting, "I'm not going to take a breath! They are bent! They lost their sciss!"

Freddie took a step back with his hands raised and snapped, "Whoa!"

Jade blinked at his reaction then realized what she was doing with flashes going through her mind of the stories he had told her with all the things Sam had came at him over the years. She lowered the scissors' end down towards the floor and wrapped her left hand around the blades. "I'm sorry," she whispered fearfully as she lowered her gaze down to the floor. "I'm sorry."

André's moment of fear was replaced with a mix of surprise and confusion at seeing Jade apologize for something for the first time. He wasn't really sure what he was look at during the couple's exchange.

Freddie blew out a breath and lowered his hands. "It's alright, it's alright," he reassured her with a smile and a comforting hand on her right shoulder.

She looked up and saw her boyfriend giving her a warm smile.

"I'm going to go help Tori; you two have fun," Freddie laughed out then gave the pale singer a quick kiss on the cheek. He paused for a moment to whisper in her ear, "We'll stop by somewhere and buy you a new pair of scissors on our way home. You can pick out any pair you want, okay?"

Her pitiful frown was replaced with a slight smile then she nodded as she replied softly, "Okay."

Freddie smiled brightened as he replied, "Okay, I'll see you in a while." He went towards the door and as he passed through the threshold, he turned back and reminded them, "Have fun!"

Black Box Theater  
>Hollywood Arts High School<p>

"And there…" Robbie commented as he finished setting up the last of the three cutout stands of Cat.

Tori asked cautiously, "Where did you get those standees of Cat?"

Robbie smiled awkwardly as he rested a hand on one of the standees and answered, "Oh, you know, I brought them from home."

"But, why do you have—"

Robbie answered with an exasperated tone and partially opened his arms wide, "I'm a tutor and I don't like to talk about what I do at my house."

Freddie frowned and stared hard at Robbie.

Tori raised her hands while holding one of her dark red Hollywood Arts drink bottles and replied, "Sorry."

Robbie picked up Rex then walked up on the platform, "Remember everything me and Freddie went over?"

Freddie smiled to the actress and reassured her, "We've done the bookwork, now the practical work."

Tori nodded as she secured the lid on top of her bottle and answered, "Think so?"

Robbie picked up for Freddie, "Good, now if you can do this last exercise in under thirty seconds, you should be able to pass your exam with no problems."

The light brunette asked curiously, "Does Cat know you have these?"

"No and don't tell her," he snapped as he rested his hand on the green lighted timer.

"Okay," Tori answered slowly with a soft laugh and sat her bottle down on the table with the theater controls and computer monitor.

Freddie leaned over and whispered to Tori, "I was never this bad with Carly and I really didn't know what I was doing those first few years."

Tori raised an eyebrow and he continued to answer her unspoken question. "I went from eleven to fourteen without any guidance or support. I had to figure it out on my own and boy did I embarrass myself at times, but nothing like this," he finished motioned to the cardboard cutouts.

"Can we get started?" Robbie asked a little impatiently.

Freddie turned his attention to the ventriloquist and asked, "Robbie?"

"Yeah?"

"We're going to have to talk about this," Freddie replied as he motioned to the three cutouts.

"Why?"

"The fact that you have to ask the question is reason enough… this isn't healthy, take it from someone who knows."

The ventriloquist gave a slight frown

Rex spoke up, "Freddie's right. It's ridiculous that you have these. Maybe if they were Tori—"

"Rex!" Tori snapped quickly and the puppet shut his mouth.

"Alright, thirty seconds and… go!" Robbie finished with slapping his hand on top of the timer.

Freddie stood back as Tori went through her routine of dashing around of closing and opening curtains, striking a palm tree and flashing lights and lasers at the three Cat standees. The brunette dashed around to turn the lights and lasers. Once the brunette

"Twenty-eight seconds," the dark curly haired teenager announced happily.

Tori raised an arm and pointed her finger to the ceiling and shouted, "I am going to rock that Tech-Theater exam." She turned to Freddie who was smiling happily and gave him a high five."

"You're going to get a least a B on this Tori," Robbie announced excitedly as he hopped down from the stage.

Cat laughed as she bounced into the room. She asked with a giggle, "Hi, how is the tutoring session goi…" She stopped and looked on in confusion as she saw the three standees of herself.

Robbie laughed nervously, "These, these aren't mine… okay they are mine, but I only made them—"

Cat took in a sharp breath and started hopping away.

Robbie held out his arms.

Tori smirked and Freddie palmed his forehead.

Music Room  
>Hollywood Arts High School<p>

It was approaching midnight as the singer and songwriter were taking a short break in writing. André's break consisted of jotting down an idea on his notepad as he sat in front of his keyboard. Jade was sitting cattycorner on his right munching on a bit of cereal with a white Styrofoam bowl resting on her notepad in her lap.

Jade asked as she reached for André's wrist as he was writing on his notepad, "Alright, did you ever try this when you were a kid?"

He pulled his hand out of her grip and replied, "Wha-wha-what are you doing?"

"Just give me your hand, don't be a baby," she replied in a defensive tone.

He rolled with the chair to get in front of her. "Alright, I'm trusting you," he relented and allowed her to take his hand.

She smirked as she whispered out, "Yeah, yeah, big mistake." She grabbed his right wrist with her left hand. "Make a fist." He complied and she replied, "Okay," as she started massaging his closed fingers with her other hand.

"What are you doing?"

"Ah, talk less and open your hand."

He complied again then she slapped his palm. "Fist," she instructed.

He closed his hand and questioned, "Are you sure there is a point to this?"

She started massaging his fingers again, "Yep and here it comes, open."

He opened his hand and she touched her pointer finger in the center of his palm then let go of his wrist.

"Ehh, it's all tingling," he laughed and smiled towards her.

She replied with a soft laugh and big smile, "See?"

André clapped his hands as he spoke, "Do it again."

"No, you have to finish writing your song chorus," Jade replied with a laugh and crossed her arms under her chest as she leaned back in her chair.

André looked to his watch and replied, "Yeah, it's after midnight, let's just bail."

"Ah un, you got a break and finish writing the chorus," she replied with a smile then popped a piece of cereal in her mouth.

"I've been trying to finish it for the last three hours," he whined out and motioned towards the keyboard with a hand.

"Wow, great, now shut up and sing something," she replied as she chewed the piece of cereal and softly smirked.

He rolled back over to his keyboard and started to try to play his song. "Ah…" he muttered out.

"Keep going," she encouraged him.

André let out a sigh as he started playing desperately trying to think of some lines to the song. He finally just started speaking, _"I ah… I really wish I could write the next line."_

Jade looked up from her pad towards him with a curious look on her face with hint of amusement playing on her mouth.

"…_umm… my favorite letter is J…" _

She tilted her head slightly to the side looking at him as the hint of amusement with her mouth turned into a smile at hearing what his favorite letter.

"…_tuna fish fillet, I'm going to wash my dog with some blue champagne." _

Once he finished playing, he leaned back in his seat with a slightly forced smile trying to show he was confident in what he just played even if he didn't believe it.

Jade licked her lips as she rested her left cheek in her hand. She sat up and jotted a note down on her notepad for a moment. She stated as she pulled over the microphone stand towards her, "Alright, let me try something. Record me?"

"Alright," André acknowledged as he rolled with his chair over the sound system and operated a few controls to record her.

She picked up the earphones hanging on the microphone supporting rod and placed them around her head and onto her ears.

Once the songsmith completed his adjustments, he turned back to her and the keyboard and replied, "Here you go." He started playing on his keyboard the melody he just played for himself.

Jade smiled for a moment then as she thought back onto her life for the last few months and someone in particular and began to sing as she closed her eyes, _"There is no upper hand, I'm giving you mine, It doesn't have to end up wasting your time, There's things that I could say, but here in my own way, I wanna let you know that it's all okay."_

André played on a few more moments watching her in muted shock.

She pulled the headphones from her ears to around the back of her neck. "What'cha you think?"

André leaned back in his chair slightly, but remained silent as he looked to the dark headed singer in wonderment.

She smiled brightly in return as she held on to each side of the headphones and replied with a light, playful snort, "Did you like that?"

"Mmmhmm…" was all that André was able to mutter out as he held his gaze onto Jade.

Jade gave him a bashful smile.

In Route to West Residence  
>Thursday, October 6, 2011<p>

The time was approaching one o'clock a.m. as Freddie let out a breath as he kept his eyes on the dark road while behind the wheel of one of Mrs. West's vehicles.

Jade glanced over at her companion as the long day was finally catching up with her and her eyelids started becoming heavy. She was glad that he had wrapped up his studying with Tori and had actually taken a nap before coming to pick her up. She let a small smile play on her face and closed her eyes thinking back on finally having a breakthrough in finishing André's song then pouring her heart into it while she recorded it for him.

Once her eyes shut, she started singing softly without realizing that she was singing, _"There is no upper hand, I'm giving you mine, It doesn't have to end up wasting your time, There's things that I could say, but here in my own way, I wanna let you know that it's all okay."_

Freddie blew out a soft breath through his nose and smiled warmly. He whispered softly back in an attempt to not further wake her as it was apparent from the corner of his eye that she was falling asleep, "You let me know it's okay in so many ways."

Jade blinked her eyes open and refocused her attention on her boyfriend. She looked over to him and replied, "I'm not the speaker in the verse… you are for me."

Vega Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Thursday, October 6, 2011

Tori flipped on a light switch at the top of the stairs to lighten the living room then headed down the stairs and for the front door. The brunette yawned as she scratched the top of her head and read a text message off of her phone as she reached the front door then opened the door.

"André?" Tori whined as the songsmith stood on the side of the threshold beside his bicycle with a black T-shirt on and his stripped boxers.

He wore a frightened expression as he answered, "Did you get my text?"

"Yes, why do you think I'm standing her at three in the morning?" she answered with mild disbelief after glancing at her phone then she scratched the top of her head.

"I'm tripping out Tori, I'm tripping out," he whined desperately as he looked upon the singer.

"Alright, just come in," she answered with a resigned tone and motion for him to enter.

"Go make the coco," he desperately instructed after propped his back against the side of one of the couches.

"I'm not going to make the coco," she answered with mild annoyance as she shut the door.

"Ohhh…" André mooned as he rubbed his temples with his fingertips.

"What is wrong with you?" Tori asked somewhat confused.

The songsmith let out a breath and waved his arms to his sides for a moment as he tried to form words then finally answered, "I think I'm in love with Jade."

Tori's expression dropped into one of complete horror then slowly walked past him towards the kitchen as she commented, "I'll make the coco."


	14. Chapter 14

Author's Note: Hello everyone, I hope all had a nice week. I have a two chapter update for you today and this is obviously the first chapter of the update. I felt I needed to split it into two parts, so two chapters. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks once again to you the readers, my reviewers, signed and unsigned, I appreciate all of you. Well on with the story which obviously has some spoilers to the episode 'Jade Gets Crushed' in an AU sort of way.

* * *

><p>Chapter 14<p>

Vega Residence  
>Thursday, October 6, 2011<p>

"You think you're in love with Jade?" Tori asked unsure if she had heard him correctly as she held her mug off coco and standing beside her couch.

"I think so," André whispered his reply while holding his own mug of coco and standing across from the brunette.

Tori nodded along for a moment then asked directing a disbelieving gaze at the songsmith, "Okay, what happened tonight?"

He shrugged a shoulder as he answered, "I don't know. We were just working together all night at school and I just saw her singing and she looked so… so pretty and sweet."

"Dude, you can't be in love with Jade, especially _now_ of all times. It's a minor miracle from what Ava told me about how Freddie looked when telling them to all get out of the music room that Beck and Freddie's 'conversation' didn't turn into a fist fight."

André replied quickly and in a tone that suggested what she said was the most obvious thing in the world, "You don't think I know that?" He blew out a small breath and took a seat on the couch. "Freddie's my friend and I'd never move on another man's girl. Na un, I don't play that way."

"Yeah, he might hurt you at this point, so just forget about this," she readily agreed as she had a seat next to him on the couch.

"I can't, OWWW!" he moaned as he reeled back and palmed the side of his head.

"Why can't you?" she asked desperately.

"Alright see, ever since I was little, I couldn't keep my feelings inside even if I wanted to, I just can't. If I feel something, I got to let it out or else I get wonky in the head," he emphasized the last point by grabbing each of his temples with his fingertips.

"Okay, okay," she attempted to comfort him. "Shh, shhh, shhh, listen, I don't think you are in love with Jade."

André responded with surprise, "You don't?"

"No, you guys were just there, together, alone late and you were tired," Tori explained as she pulled down her oversize shirt past her waist.

"Yeah, we were tired, that's true," he went along as the gears in his head started processing what she was saying and naturally trusting her.

"And you were writing a song, so you felt _emotional_."

"Ahun, I did," he readily agreed.

Tori nodded with a small smile as she continued, "And you forgot that Jade is a mean, vicious person, with deep psychological problems."

"Yeah, I forgot those things," he answered as if he was surprised that he forgot those points.

"But by tomorrow, you'll be fine again," she finished with a small, comforting smile.

"Yeah, I bet I will," he agreed with a smile.

They both reached down at the same time to pick up their respective mugs of coco off the coffee table.

André took a sip then commented, "This coco is good."

Tori nodded along and smiled. "It's from Belgium."

"It's probably why then."

"Mmhun," she agreed with a smile then took another sip from her mug.

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Thursday, October 6, 2011<p>

Jade and Freddie were looking at something on Jade's phone as they approached Tori and André apparently in an intense discussion. They apparently heard the couple approach and turned their attention to the pair.

"Hey," Tori greeted them.

Jade smiled as she slipped her phone in her back pocket and asked, "So? Can I hear the song?"

Freddie agreed with her readily, "I'm eager to hear it too. She started singing some of it last night, half asleep when we were going home."

André cleared his throat then started, "Yeah, I just gotta—"

Cat bounced to them still wearing her Jupiter Boots then past them while they stared at her.

One the red velvet haired teenager passed them, the couple looked back to the opposite pair then Jade asked curiously with a smile, "So the song?"

André paused and apparently was unable to speak for the moment.

"Jade wants to hear the song you recorded together," Tori offered.

André turned to them and motioned with a hand towards Jade, "Oh yeah, I'll email it to you, via the internet."

"Via?" Jade asked with a perplex look.

Freddie spoke up, "Ah, shouldn't you listen to the song together?"

"No, why together, she can listen to it by herself… I didn't do anything," he finished with a desperate tone and a look of panic on his face.

"Okay, email it to me," Jade hesitantly agreed then passed a glance to Freddie that looked just as bewildered as her.

The couple walked on with Freddie asking once they were out of earshot, "What's going on with him?"

Jade answered just as confused manner, "I don't know."

"Something happen last night?"

The actresses raised a corner of her mouth then answered just as puzzled, "I don't think so. We brainstormed all night then we finally finished the chorus and we recorded it. Maybe the stress of needing to get it done has finally caught up with him? Post-stress?"

Freddie shrugged a shoulder. "It happens… probably has to do with him running on the same few hours of sleep you're running on too."

The dark brunette cracked a smile. "Probably… I need more coffee."

Freddie motioned with his head for them to take a detour off the hallway they were going down. "Come on; let's see if we can't get Lane to get you some more from the teacher's lounge."

* * *

><p>The rest of the day passed fairly quickly, so it seemed in no time that Freddie and Tori were leaving Mister Allen's class after the last bell of the day. Once they were out in the hallway and the rest of the students had a clear path to pass the pair, Tori stopped Freddie with a smile on her face. "I wanted to show you something."<p>

Tori brought her book bag around her left side while one strap was still on her shoulder as to reach inside. A moment later she pulled out a few stapled sheets then handed them to Freddie.

The Seattle native took the sheets and took a quick glance over it to figuring out what he was viewing. He cracked a smile and looked up to the brunette. "You got a hundred on your exam?"

"Yep and I can't thank you and Robbie enough."

Freddie laughed, "That's fantastic."

Tori moved in for a quick hug and he patted her back and whispered, "You're welcome."

The brunette pulled away from Freddie then he handed the papers to her and the pair started down the hall towards Tori's locker.

Freddie cleared his throat and hesitantly started, "So ah… what's up with André?"

"André?" she asked quickly and blinked in surprise as she turned her head to look at the muscular teenager.

Freddie shrugged a shoulder, "Yeah, he was kind of odd this morning. Jade and I are a little concerned. She thought it could be the stress he pushed away trying to finish the song catching up with him."

She puttered out quickly, "Right, the stress, that's all it is."

Freddie stopped and raised an eyebrow forcing Tori to stop and face him. "Are you okay?"

The brunette cleared her throat and broke eye contact as she answered, "Yeah, sure, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Because you seem kind of off now… is there something going on between you two?"

"What?" she asked shock and raised her brow.

Freddie nodded his head back and forth for a moment before asking, "I mean is everything okay between you two? He's not holding anything against you because he was disappointed that you couldn't record the song with him?"

"What? No," she answered then snorted out awkwardly, "No, we're fine."

Freddie nodded along with a hesitant smile. "Okay…"

Tori motioned her head and continued to give him an awkward smile, "Well let's get going."

"Right…"

Vega Residence  
>Thursday, October 6, 2011<p>

Mrs. Vega pulled on her jacket as she was readying to head out when she heard the doorbell ring. She adjusted her jacket then answered the door to see André on the other side looking down at his phone.

"Oh hi André, come on in," Mrs. Vega offered the songsmith.

"Thanks," he answered as he entered the Vega home and slipped his phone in his pocket.

André stopped in the middle of the living room as Mrs. Vega asked, "Is Tori expecting you?"

He answered with a slight shrug of his shoulder, "Yeah, she asked me to come over tonight for something, I don't know."

"Tori! André is here to see you!" she called out as she reached down to pick up her purse and keys off the coffee table. "I'm heading to the market."

André had a seat at the end of the far couch towards the kitchen then commented, "Eww, make sure you pick up some more of that Belgium coco."

"Alright," she answered a little surprised then exited the house.

"What are you doing in my house?" Tori whined as she walked down the stairs then passed between the couches.

The songwriter put on a look of shock as he stood up and took in the image of Tori dressed in black jeans, black shirt, and a very dark navy blue over shirt with a black wig with green hair extensions on her head. "What in the name of gravy?" he called out completely bewildered at what he was seeing.

Tori raised her left hand and pointed at him as she answered, "Here's an idea, say something intelligent or shut your face."

"Why are you all dressed up like Jade?"

Tori slightly frowned and rolled her eyes up at the ceiling then pulled a sticky-note from off her behind and handed it to her friend.

He quickly read off the note, "I'm helping you. Just pretend that I'm Jade and you'll see why you don't want to be in love with a girl like her."

"Congrates, you can read at a second grade level," she snapped back sarcastically.

"This isn't going to work," he answered in disbelieving tone.

Tori resisted rolling her eyes then pulled another post-it note from off of her rear and handed it to him.

André read the next note, "Yes it will, come on and just go with it." He looked up from the post-it note then shoved the pair inside one of his jacket pockets and asked, "Alright, so Jade?"

She crossed her arms under her chest and gave him a barely restrained glare. "What?"

He clasped over a hand with the other then released them in a casual manner then re-clasped them together as he asked, "You want to go see a movie?"

"Sure, let's go see 'Death of a Kitten'," she answered with a sarcastic tone.

André dropped his hands then thumbed his jacket pockets. "Or maybe we should just go out and get a hamburger?"

"Beef makes me puke," she answered with a barely interesting expression.

"Dang girl."

Mister Vega entered the house from the patio and cut through the kitchen as he asked, "Tori, Tori? Have you seen my glasses?"

Tori looked past André to snark at her father, "Ah, I'm not your little find it girl alright if you lost your glasses, maybe you should lock yourself in the basement and cry about it,"

"Dang girl," he commented then turned to head up the stairs.

"Ah, don't you think you were a little mean to your dad? Jade?"

She took a seat on the couch and pulled an arm back to rest on the backrest with André followed suit as she answered, "Deal with it," she leaned forward to meet his eyes and finished in a menacing tone, "if you and I are ever boyfriend/girlfriend, I'll be _way meaner to you_."

André leaned towards Tori and closed his eyes.

Tori started in concern as she saw what he was starting to do, "Ah, hey now, what are you—"

"Oh Jade," he whispered.

"André?" she called out then smacked him in the face with one of the couch pillows.

André pulled away from Tori and started to apologize, "Oh, ah, I'm sorry; you just seemed so much like Jade. I got all—"

"Wonky?" she supplied with a concerned expression as she brought the pillow down into her lap.

"Willy Wonky," he shouted and touched each of his temples with his fingertips.

Tori turned in her seat and sat cross-legged on the couch then asked, "Man, you're really messed up about this?"

He pulled his arms back and rested them on the backrest of the couch. "You know last night, after—" he paused to pick up one of the other couch pillows and pulled it to his chest, wrapping his arms around it, "after I got home…"

"Yeah?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I stayed up to dawn writing a song about Jade."

Tori cooed, "You wrote her a song? That is so sweet."

André got up from the couch and shouted with disgust as he walked towards the kitchen, "It's evil, she's Freddie's girlfriend."

Tori got up from her seat and followed him into the kitchen. "I know, I know… okay wait, wait, wait, the song you wrote about her, you expressed your feelings in that song right?"

"Yeah," he answered as he took a seat on the edge of the kitchen table.

She motioned towards him with her hands as she continued, "So, just sing Jade that song and then you can get over her."

André started counting off with his fingers of tapping his fingertips, "If I sing her the song then she's going to know how I feel then Freddie's going to know then he just may hit me." He shook his head then got up from the edge of the table then had a seat with Tori taking a seat at the end of the table. He looked to the brunette and continued, "I don't know if the rest of you see it, but he's at the tipping point and besides not wanting to be a bad person I promised my grandma I'd never be… you know before she lost her mind… I don't want to be the one that pushes him off the edge."

Tori gave him a sad expression as she started, "I think he's holding himself together pretty well… considering everything…"

The songsmith gave her a sympathetic smile as he asked, "You really want to see what happens if it looks like another one of his friends is betraying him? That's a scary thought and I don't want to be that person or see it happen to him."

Tori looked down at the kitchen table and let her fingers carelessly toy with one another. She blew out a breath then suggested, "Jade doesn't have to know the song is about her."

André reached for the small bowl of nuts resting at the center of the Vega kitchen table then popped one into his mouth. As he chewed, he retorted, "Her name is in it like ten times—Arg, I hate nuts." He spit out the nut into the small green bowl resting beside the nut bowl.

"So, just change all the Jades to… baby," she countered as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

"Baby? Yeah, baby could be anybody," he agreed with a bit of relief.

She pointed to him then tapped the table top as she made her point, "Huh hun and you sing your song tomorrow night at school the Friday night concert. Jade will be in the audience. You can sing her your song and she'll never even know it's for her."

André looked down at the kitchen table and palmed his forehead, "I don't know if I can do it, I'm feeling very emotional."

"You want me to sing it with you?"

"Yes please," he somewhat wept underneath his hand.

"Awe…" she comforted him with a smile and rubbed up and down his arm.

West Residence  
>Thursday, October 6, 2011<p>

About an hour had passed since dinner as Jade was passing by the kitchen and noticed that the lights were on in the garage through the window of the kitchen door to the garage. She wore a curious expression as she approached the door and took a quick peak through the window to see that the garage door was closed, but the lights were shining. She thought she could make out that the driver's side door was open to Freddie's Charger parked at the far end of the garage.

She slowly opened the door and cautiously walked down the steps to the garage floor. The dark brunette walked past both her mother's vehicles and stopped when she was correct in seeing that the driver's side door of the Charger was open, but mildly surprised that her boyfriend just sitting in the driver's seat.

"Hey?"

Freddie looked up from the steering wheel and towards the dark brunette. "Hey."

She walked between the Charger and her mother's luxury sedan then leaned back to rest against the silver Mercedes-Benz to look onto her boyfriend. "What'cha doing?"

He gave her a playful smirk as he responded, "Trying to work up some courage."

The pale teenager slightly frowned and narrowed her gaze at him. She asked with her voice filled with concern, "To do what?"

His smirk turned into a playful smile as he asked, "To ask you out on a date."

"A date?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Freddie pulled his feet out of the vehicle and turned in his seat for them to rest on the garage floor. "We've never been on an official date as boyfriend/girlfriend. Yeah, we've went out before and after we got together that could be considered dates, but we've never went into them as dates and I want to go out on one with you. So, Jadelyn West, would you like to go out on a date with me?"

Jade concerned expression changed into confused then giving him a warm smile that reached her eyes in barely a few seconds. "I would love to go out on a date with you. What do you have in mind?"

"I wanted to take you to the school's Friday night concert as my date," he started then patted the top of the door as the window was rolled down, "and in this… if you wouldn't be too embarrassed to show up in her before I can get her fixed up."

She pushed off her mother's car then leaned forward to rest her left hand on top of his right one on the driver's door to keep her balance as she stopped with her mouth just inches from his mouth and she looked directly into his eyes. She whispered, "I told you before that I wouldn't be embarrassed to go anywhere with you in your car."

"Thanks."

"What about work?"

"The boss is happy to give me the night off even after having to take last Friday off. Their sales are up since I've been there and it looks like I have a knack for sales and I'm going to be making up the hours later."

"Okay."

Freddie let out a slow breath. "Wow that was easier than I thought."

Jade shrugged a shoulder and gave him a wicket smirk. "What can I say? You have your charm."

A corner of Freddie's mouth rose from her compliment. "Do you mind if I go ahead and give you your present I was going to give you before our date?"

She put on a curious expression.

He turned in his seat and reached over to the passenger side seat then brought over a small nondescript rectangular box. He held it up in front of her and spoke, "Usually a girl wants flowers, but I thought you'd appreciate this more."

She raised her right eyebrow as she took the box and straightened her stance. She pulled off the lid and broke into a smile as she saw a pair a scissors with a grey handle just like the ones that were bent from Sinjin sitting on them.

The pale teenager looked up to see Freddie smiling warmly. "Since it was so late when I picked you up and we didn't get a chance to go by the store, I guessed on a pair that you would like, but I kept the receipt if you want to take them back and pick out a pair you want like I originally said."

Jade bit her bottom lip for a moment then leaned forward to kiss him softly on his cheek. She whispered as she rubbed the tip of her nose against his cheek, "You did good Freddie. You did good."


	15. Chapter 15

Author's Note: This is the **second chapter** for this week's update, so if you haven't read Chapter 14 and just jumped to this one, please go back one chapter to see how the story got to this point. I think you will enjoy it.

* * *

><p>Chapter 15<p>

West Residence  
>Friday, October 7, 2011<p>

Freddie was leaning back with his arms crossed over his chest against the driver's side door of the Charger as he waited for Jade to exit from the kitchen/garage door so they could head out to the Friday Night Concert at Hollywood Arts. He was taking as many calm breaths as possible to reduce the growing apprehension he felt as he waited for the dark brunette. He occasionally glanced at his car and the blemishes seemed to stand out more to him (as if the different colored driver's side door wasn't enough). He tried to ignore them as he didn't need to feel embarrassment of taking Jade out in his beat up car (especially in contrast to what she was use to riding with Beck in his restored Cougar) on top of the nervousness almost running through his veins and end of his nerves to try to make it a pleasant and memorable date. If he thought any longer on the idea of the battered car, he just might start drawing parallels between himself and the vehicle.

Fortunately, he had prepared with some confident boosting surprises for his lovely girlfriend when the time was right. Also, he decided to wear his blue and white flannel patterned button shirt that he had worn their first night together as together to boost his confidence. He knew that was her favorite shirt and he had noticed a few times that she had stolen it to wear as a night shirt a few times. Regardless of how he washed the shirt, he could swear with some of the calming breaths that he smelled her faint scent on the collar and the rest of his shirt.

He closed his eyes and took another slow breath. A small smile crept up as he realized that he could smell the dark brunette on his shirt.

"You seem pretty happy," he heard Jade's voice comment in a sly tone.

Freddie opened his eyes to see Jade smirking at him with her arms loosely crossed under her chest as she stood on the top step leading into the garage.

Jade had decided to wear all black on this night with a shirt that became sheer just above the elbows, a studded black vest, a black frilly scarf loosely wrapped around her neck, a skirt that ended just above her fingertips when her arms hung loose beside her thighs, black leggings and her black boots that came up just past halfway up her calf.

He let out a soft chuckle, "I am."

Her smirk turned into a warm smile and he just took the moment to admire the beauty that he saw shine from her eyes, face and smile. He wondered for a moment if anyone else saw that side of her.

"You look very lovely this evening," he called out just enough for her to hear him on the other side of the garage.

She gave a slight nod as she walked down the steps and around her mother's cars to him. When she reached about a foot in front of him, she replied, "Thank you."

They looked to one another for another few seconds until he swept widely with his right arm past the hood of the car towards the passenger side door.

She accepted the offer with another bright smile and started walking around the front of the car with him right behind her.

The dark brunette opened the passenger door and was about to have a seat when she stopped to see a single dark pink rose with a white ribbon tied around the stem. She carefully picked up the delicate flower then turned to look at Freddie with a curious expression. She held up the flower and asked, "Pink?"

"Dark pink," he softly corrected then bashfully smiled. He cocked his head slight to his right and shrugged his right shoulder at the same time as he started to explain, "I know it's not your color, but… it sums up pretty good what I'm feeling right now."

Her curiosity perked up at his enticing statement. "What's that?"

He stuffed his hands in his jean pockets and let his shoulders slump. "Well, a rose in of itself of course has the underlining meaning love. You know I care about you very much. I think that goes without saying, but I need to say it anyway and this… this particular choice of color represents how much I appreciate and grateful I am to you for… well everything you've done for me. Thank you."

She looked down at the bloomed rose and bit her bottom lip for a moment. She lifted her head then wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and pulled him close to snuggle her nose in the crook of his neck.

He pulled his hands out of his pockets then rested them on the small of her back.

He could feel her smile against the side of his neck as she whispered sincerely, "I, you Freddie Benson."

"I, you too Jade West," he whispered back in his ear.

She finally pulled away and asked with a grin, "Should we get going?"

He gave a quick nod and let her go to start back around the front of the Charger.

Once he reached his side of the vehicle and had a seat, he pulled his PearPhone and accompanying earbuds from his front shirt pocket and handed it to Jade after she settled in her seat and put on her seat belt.

She gave him a curious expression as she accepted the items and he responded with an embarrassed expression as he motioned towards the relatively antiquated radio that was lucky that it had a CD player along with the audio cassette player least long anyway to hook up any form of a Pear Product.

"I have a few songs that I think that you would enjoy on our way to and from the concert, but the car is obviously not equipped to play the songs from my phone."

Jade gave an understanding nod then quickly hooked up the earbuds to the phone. She rested the Freddie's PearPhone in her lap as she placed an earbud in each of her respective ears then reached for the resting phone in her lap as the former Tech-Producer started the car. She didn't pay attention to the title of the first song as she tapped the play button with her thumb. A few moments later a familiar beat started playing then the king started singing, _"A little less conversation, a little more action please. All this aggravation ain't satisfactioning me. A little more bite and a little less bark. A little less fight and a little more spark. Close your mouth and open up your heart and baby satisfy me. Satisfy me baby…"_

Jade covered her mouth with her left hand for a moment to try to stifle a laugh then turned her head to see a smirking Freddie.

He cocked his head slightly to the side and asked playfully, "Who would have thought you were an Elvis girl?" He tapped the remote control to the automatic garage door opener that was attached to his sun visor then turned his attention to look over his shoulder to back the car out of the garage and driveway and on to Hollywood Arts.

Asphalt Café Parking Lot  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Friday, October 7, 2011

It was about twenty minutes before the Friday night concert was about to start as Freddie crossed his arms looking at the outwardly appearance of a rundown car with Dusty and Sinjin standing on either side of him, but he smiled nevertheless as he commented, "She's not much to look at, but she runs fine. It's almost exclusively body and interior work that needs to get done."

"I think she's beautiful…" Dusty cracked a smile and nodded as he commented looking over the muscle car and taking a step forward to pat the roof. "I was thinking of it painted orange, a zero and one painted on the side and Cat in some of those Daisy Dukes she loves to wear."

Freddie slightly smirked and raised a curious eyebrow as he asked with a bit of humor in his voice, "Really?"

Dusty turned his head and gave Freddie a genuine curious expression as he asked, "What? You didn't see her on Tuesday with those short little jean shorts she had on…" The leaner teenager then whistled the first twelve notes to 'Dixie'.

Freddie continued to stare with a slight smirk.

He wore a hesitant smile as he motioned with his right hand as if blowing the horn in the middle of a steering wheel for a car. "…and the horn they had?" He crossed his arms as he continued, "You have to be at least familiar with the show… Jessica Simpson and Johnny Knoxville were in a remake movie a few years back…"

Sinjin and Freddie glanced to one another for a moment then back at the other teen with curious expressions.

Dusty groaned in disbelief and rolled his eyes. "Hey, you're the one that 'cleaned up' a black man to be all sophisticated and articulate so that he could be acceptable to your white mother, so I don't want to hear any stupid Southern stereotype jokes from you."

Freddie raised his hands ups and chuckled for a few seconds. "Wasn't going to make them."

Dusty gave him a narrowed look that showed he partially doubted Freddie's word.

Sinjin spoke up, "I think it's a hot car."

Freddie glanced towards the taller teenager. "Thanks, I hope to fix her up over next couple of weeks."

Dusty poked his head into the vehicle as the driver's side door window rolled down and took a quick glance. The interior didn't look as worn as one would initially think from looking at just the outside. The leaner teenager pulled back then looked back to the former Tech-Producer to ask, "So where did you get it?"

"Jade's dad's boss owns a salvage/scrap yard and Mrs. West says he practically gave it to her, so she gave it to me."

Dusty motioned towards the vehicle. "Wow, your girlfriend's mom gave you a car and a sweet one at that, what exactly are doing in that relationship to get this?"

Freddie snorted out a laugh, "I'm not sure, but I think it has to do with me reminding her someone she really cares about."

"Ex-boyfriend or something?"

The more muscular teenager shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know."

Dusty chuckled, "Whatever the case, I so want a chance behind the wheel once you fix her up."

Freddie ran a quick hand over his mouth and chine then responded, "I'll think about it."

"Best I could hope for," he answered with a laugh.

Asphalt Café  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Friday, October 7, 2011

There were probably several dozen students waiting in the parking lot for the next act to play for the Friday night concert. Cat and Robbie were mingling in the crowd of standing students with Ava and Sinjin sitting with a few other students in lounge chairs close to the second floor of the Café.

Freddie had his left arm around Jade's waist as they sat on the blanket covered hood of the Charger and looked up to the second floor of the Café as well.

One of the teachers with dark hair and a Hollywood Arts windbreaker jacket announced, "Okay, coming up next, we got André Harris and Tori Vega, singing an original song by André Harris. Give it up everybody!"

He stepped aside and allowed André to step up to the microphone and begin, "This is a song I wrote for—"

Tori walked up right beside him and grabbed the microphone to finish, "For his dog."

"I love my dog," he confirmed with a hesitant tone.

André started playing and the crowd started clapping along and moving long with the beat. _"Monday I fell for you…"_

Jade was smiling as she rocked to the music, then started clapping along with the beat, but Freddie held a neutral expression as he watched the pair sing and André directing his gaze at Jade several times during the course of his singing: _'Tuesday I wrote you this song; Wednesday, I wait outside your door even though I know it's wrong; I want you all to myself; I don't want anyone else.'_

The song went on for about another minute and the crowd cheering louder as it continued until the duet finished, _"How can I get it through, how can I get it through? I'll try 365 days, 365 ways to get to you, you."_

The crowed started shouting and yelling with Jade cheering loudly. Freddie clapped politely as he kept a reserve expression on his face.

André and Tori come down the stairs along with the back up band. Congratulations and cheers were exchanged when they met up with the rest of the Hollywood Arts gang.

Tori exchanged a quick hug with Robbie while Cat bounced to get a hug from André and excitedly speak, "You were so good." She let go then hugged the blonde drummer.

The dark headed teenager gave the songsmith a quick hug as Cat was commenting in the background, "That was so good."

"And now it's over," Robbie commented needlessly.

"Ahh…" Cat whispered in disappointment.

Jade finally pulled back then paused as she studied what appeared to be an apprehensive look on André's face.

She didn't look too long as Rex shouted, "They got spaghetti tacos!"

Most of the group looked in the direction Rex had indicated. Robbie and Beck dashed off towards the server with Cat bouncing along the way behind them.

Freddie sighed out with a soft laugh, "You got to be kidding me?"

Jade laughed and motioned her head in the direction of the server. "Oh come on… it's one of those things good things you don't want to let go of, remember?"

He nodded in agreement and smiled. "You're right, but… I'll catch up with you in a second?"

"Okay, I'll grab you one," she replied then turned to catch up with the rest of them.

He looked to the brunette with a bashful smile, "Tori, could you give me and André a second?"

The brunette face fell in worry as she looked nervously to André for a moment, but he gave a reassuring nod to the brunette. She smiled anxiously and went to catch up with the rest of the group.

Freddie took a deep breath and stuck his hands in his jeans pockets then spoke calmly, "You remember Gibby?"

"Yeah," he replied unsure where Freddie was going with the conversation.

The brown eye teenager smiled as he continued, "He was my friend. One time he thought I had tried to move in on his girlfriend and was ready to 'beat the fudge' out of me because of it. Sam was all excited about showing it on iCarly and even training him so he could really hurt me. He really thought I would go after his girl. He wouldn't believe a word I said or believe his own girlfriend. He was wrong of course and only admitted it when I showed him video of what really happened."

André raised a hand and motioned along with the story as he replied nervously, "Yeah… I remember that. He really did want to pound you."

Freddie nodded in agreement. "Yes he did… a few months ago I was interested in this girl and she was interested in me. It happened after we showed the Fredward Cullen video. You know, me dressed up as a vampire for the parody got the ladies interested. I was about to go on my first date with her when Gibby showed up to take her out on a date. He swooped in and sabotaged me before I even got off the ground with her. I reminded him that he had a girlfriend, but he said suddenly they weren't exclusive and had no problem janking me over with my chance with her. He had no problem doing what he accused me of trying to do to him and putting a knife in my back."

André felt his throat constrict and his palms start to become sticky as Freddie's look towards him became colder.

Freddie took a breath and finished, "His girlfriend found out then dumped him. Now she's a European underwear model now…" Freddie raised a surprised eyebrow as he finished, "…that sometimes forgets to wear the underwear when she models as I understand it."

He let out a breath then looked back to André, "So… that's what my friend was willing to do to me even when it cost him. André, I consider you a friend… this isn't some girl I've know for a few days, this is Jade and I'm not going through a repeat of what happened… so are we going to have the same problem?"

The songsmith cleared his throat and shifted on his feet back and forth a little bit then nervous response, "Why would we have that problem?"

Freddie nodded along realizing that it was going to be the hard way then answered in a stern voice, "You wrote a song about my girlfriend that even if you feel guilty, you would do anything to get with her… three hundred sixty-five ways to be exact. You wouldn't think I would have a problem with it?"

He shook his head desperately and retorted, "It wasn't about Jade—"

Freddie tilted his head to the side and replied in a guarded voice, "And 'A Song to You' isn't about Tori?"

The songsmith blinked at the accusation and shut his mouth quickly.

Freddie held his gaze steady as he sized up André and started wondering if he had to start reevaluating his friendship with the songwriter. "You looked directly at Jade during some of those lines and they weren't random gazes."

The performer hesitantly started, "Freddie man…" André let out a breath, "I didn't mean to fall in love with her, it was just… when she was helping me write the song… she was singing a few lyrics and I saw—"

Freddie grinned knowingly as he interrupted, "You saw past the shell and her outer layers? You saw in her what I see… what Beck sees?"

The songsmith nodded in agreement as he tried to remain calm and composed.

The brown haired teenager continued, "I listened to the song you wrote together and I can see how you saw it. She's so honest when she sings… I really don't understand how anyone doesn't really see her after hearing her sing… and sees how beautiful she really is inside."

André slightly relaxed as he was grateful for the apparent understanding from the Seattle native.

Freddie shrugged his shoulders. "So, why the song? Why sing it tonight?"

André rung his hands as he gathered his nerve to continue, "I didn't want to say anything or ever act on anything, because I don't want to be a bad person. I don't go after another man's girl, but… I'm just one of those people that can't bury my feelings. I've never been able to, I have to express myself. So… the song just came out and Tori suggested that if I sing it to her and she didn't realize it, then I'd get her out of my system and that would be the end of that."

Freddie looked to him and evaluated the answer. He didn't want to feel ill will towards the songsmith or be untrusting towards him.

André raised his hands. "Freddie, I know you love her—"

"I don't love her like that… we're not there yet, but… I appreciate the sentiment," he finished somewhat sadly.

The songsmith nodded his head hoping that was an appropriate response. He was thinking that he had fallen in love with Jade, but the guy standing in front of him that had became a fast friend that he knew cared far more about Jade than he, couldn't say he loved her… well that put a new perspective on his fleeting feelings for Jade and on Freddie. "I didn't realize how tough it was on you man."

Freddie looked to the pavement for a moment contemplating the statement. He looked up then replied, "I'm still going through a lot of chizz André… with being here instead of Seattle, dealing my issues from the past… Beck to a certain extent… and I don't need another worry… I don't need an enemy here."

He shook his head and raised his hands. "You don't have to worry about me man. That's why I didn't want to say anything at all. I'm not Gibby."

"I guess we'll see… but in the meantime, let's go see if those spaghetti tacos are as good as Spencer's?"

He snorted out a laugh and nodded in agreement. "In the meantime."

Freddie Benson's Room  
>West Residence<br>12:23 AM, Saturday, October 8, 2011

"…_So there you are, mistakenly mistaken for a deeper scar, a hole in your heart, and the same for me, is everything you touch keeping you down or setting you free…"_ Jade's voice played through the PearPod docking stand's speakers.

The couple was resting in Freddie's bed as he was slightly propped up with his pillow staring up at the ceiling while Jade rested her head on his left shoulder, her left hand on his chest, his left arm around her waist and his hand resting on her hip. The pair had long changed into sleepwear with Freddie wearing a white athletic undershirt with boxers while Jade had stolen his plaid pattern shirt as soon as he had taken it off and went back to her bedroom to come back a few minutes later with it on, the sleeves rolled up just above her elbows and a pair of drawstring black sweat pants.

Freddie's voice broke the peacefulness of the song that Jade had recorded for André, "Carly wanted me to stay…"

Jade blinked as if she was unsure if she heard him correctly. She lifted her head off of his shoulder and looked to him with a mixture of concern and surprise.

He kept his head in place, but shifted his eyes to meet her eyes. He whispered softly, almost in a regretful tone, "Just before I left for the airport…"

Freddie Benson's Room  
>Benson Apartment<br>Seattle, WA  
>Saturday, October 1, 2011<p>

Carly met his eyes with her brown eyes and blew out a slow breath. In a barely audible and desperate whisper, she answered, "I want you to stay."

Freddie snorted out as he turned back to zip up his suitcase, "I have a flight to catch."

"I'm not kidding!" she shouted as she took a step forward towards the brown eyed teenager.

He turned to face her and snapped back with an annoyed tone, "I didn't think you were, but I really don't care what you want; it isn't about what you want, it's about what I want and I want to make my flight on time."

Carly whispered in a resigned tone, "You love her that much?"

Freddie tilted his head slightly to the side then whispered coldly, "I finally love myself enough to get out of his Hellhole."

The venom in his voice caused the brunette to take a step back and shut her mouth tightly for a moment. Jade was obviously not a topic up for discussion.

Freddie shook his head and clenched his jaw for a moment as various emotions passed through his eyes. "I am not going to stand here and miss my flight to have the same damn conversation with you for the what? Third, forth time? I've lost count." He turned to lock the additional clasps over the zipper to completely secure the suitcase closed.

"No, we're not going to have the same conversation again… I was wrong and you were right," she finished in a regretful tone.

Freddie paused then slowly turned to face the brunette who had gathered her courage and looked to him. "I… I wronged you and failed you in so many ways. You were right: I put Sam and everyone else before you. I let my love for her prevent me from doing right by you."

The brown eyed teenager smirked and answered with a sarcastic tone, "Well I'm finally glad you realized that… assuming it's true, but it's too damn little, too damn late for you to realize that now."

Carly took a sharp intake of breath and her cheeks slightly flushed at the accusation that she could be lying to him. She pushed the feelings aside and countered with a steady voice, "I'm not so sure."

His voice obtained a little edge as he answered, "I am since you can't do anything with it. I'm not ready to forgive you even if I believed you and I'm not staying so you can 'prove' how you've changed."

"I'm not asking you to forgive me right now—"

"No, you're just asking me to give up everything for you and come back to this Hell. No thank you, you're not even worth all that anymore," he interrupted with a sharp tone that even surprised himself, but he kept a stern expression on his face.

The brunette stopped herself from wincing as he had learned how to cut her deep, but she pressed on, "Not just for me. I'm just asking you to come back to your life—" she paused when she saw his cold stare, but quickly corrected herself, "—a better life than the one you left at the beginning of summer."

"A better life? And what would that be that I don't already have in Los Angeles?"

"Ridgeway? It's been like a second home since middle school and I know people would love to have you back."

His eyes squinted and the corner of his mouth raised for a moment to process what he thought was an absurd idea. He blew out a disbelieving breath and countered, "To ease their guilt that some of them might finally start feeling for the way they treated me or allowed me to be treated in the hopes that I won't decide one day to post a video on-line telling the world how badly they treated me. Remember how fast everyone discarded me when I thought Fred wasn't funny? I do and I remember how far their loyalty goes with me."

Freddie snorted out a breath then continued, "Hollywood Arts is a far better school. The teachers don't harass me. I haven't met one that is an asshole like Howard or Briggs and the closest that might come to them is Vice Principal Dickers and he has a right to be that ticked off most of the time since Principal Helen got the job over him after the last principal left. I actually have an extended group of acquaintances outside my group of friends that actually treat me with respect and not just because they were fans of me from when I was on the show. So no Carly, that is not a reason to come back."

Carly let out a slow breath through as she apparently realized that he wasn't feeling homesick at least in regards to school.

"Your mom?"

Freddie gave her an even expression. "All children leave the nest… well they're suppose to and she's finally realized that. Her religious convictions out way her helicopter mentality."

Carly darted her eyes back and forth as she knew she was grasping at straws. "Us? Our friendship, me, Spencer, Gibby… Sam would behave."

"I already have real friends and not posers like all of you turned out."

Carly's eyes widened at the verbal slap.

"Oh don't look surprised Carls. I have friends. _Real friends._ Tori is my friend. She's nice and kind and far more consistently considerate than I can ever remember any of you being towards me. She's a lot like you… except she's real and you turned out to be an act. André doesn't look down at me as some kind of 'nerd' or 'geek', but as a peer, equal and friend. Cat? _The sweetest person you will probably ever know_ and never has a cross word against anyone. I'm not sure she's capable of being mean. Robbie and Rex, as odd as he can be with his duel personalities and sometimes a little crude humor, he's a stand up guy. Trina…" He shook his head and grinned as he thought on the older Vega sister. "She may be conceited and a little self-centered, but… she's Trina."

"All of you on the other hand were backstabbers and liars, well except for Sam as she was always honest about how much she hated me, but that's on me for not realizing sooner that she had no redeeming qualities about her when it came to us. Gibby is nothing but a Judas ready to stab you in the back the first chance he gets if it'll a profit him. I know; I've learned the hard way. You might want to be careful; he might make a pass at you if you're not looking after your date with Kyle obviously did blow up in your face. Sam… we've covered that far too many times and I don't share even your father's pragmatic hope that Sam is salvageable at the moment. Spencer stuck his head in the sand and refused to be the adult in the room and try to stop anything you three did to me or any one else, but I let him slide far more than any of you because let's face it, he's an adult-child. You… I'm still trying to figure out the puzzle that is Carly Shay."

Carly clamped her mouth shut. His views on what happened had not softened, but he had entrenched with them while being in L.A. with people that had treated him far better than in Seattle. He didn't know how right he had been about Gibby as the tall teen had made a few passes at her, whether intentional or not, when he started dog sitting Sir Licks-a-Lot and attempted to get her to be the dog's mommy. However, she noticed something else: he had avoided talking about Jade. She swallowed as she knew it would be a dangerous angle to play…

She gave a quick nod and looked the hardwood floor. "Well, you don't want to miss your flight."

Freddie blinked in surprise that she would apparently give up that easily and not at least try to defend herself from his verbal shredding of their character.

Before he could come up with anything to say, she continued, "Can I ride with you down?"

Freddie gave a slight nod of his head and motioned with his hand towards the door. He figured maintaining a little bit of courtesy wasn't too much trouble.

* * *

><p>After a goodbye with his mother that lasted far too long for his tastes, he and Carly were riding down the freight elevator down to the first floor. As it went past floor after floor, Carly spoke up and not taking her eyes off the doors in front of her, "You're wondering what I am? I'm the girl that janked up beyond belief and may never understand how much I'm sorry for what I've done… but I'm also the one that misses you the most… cut through all the chizz and that's what's left: I'm sorry and I miss you."<p>

Freddie clenched his jaw and blew out a slow breath through his nose then turned his head to meet her sad brown eyes. "A part of me misses you too…"

She nodded along for a second then the pair looked to the elevator door as they continued their ride down in silence.

The doors slid open and Freddie picked up his two suitcases while his book bag was on his back. He started out of the elevator, but Carly called out quietly as he straddled the threshold between the lobby and elevator, "One last thing, Jade better be treating you right… far better than I have…"

Freddie put up the best emotionless mask possible then turned his head to face her. After a few moments of realizing that it was disturbing her, his face softened as he replied, "Take care of yourself Carly… I'll see you around."

She cracked a small, but noticeable smile and he saw her eyes light up just a little. "I will… you take care of yourself and I'll see you around."

He nodded one last time then started into the lobby to wait for his cab.

Freddie Benson's Room  
>West Residence<br>12:33 AM, Saturday, October 8, 2011

Jade snuggled her head back into his shoulder and remained quite during his retelling of what happened before he left Seattle. She stared out past his chest and out the window as she finally broke the relative silence (as some music was still softly playing in the background) of the room with a whisper filled with a little bit of hurt, "You didn't mention me as a reason for coming back."

He answered just as quietly as he stared up at the ceiling, "I don't talk about our relationship with anyone and she'd be the last one I would. I wasn't going to give her an opening for you and me to become a debate topic regardless of how sincere she may be in her apology and I'm not debating _us_ with anyone. If she thought you were the sole reason I stayed then she may have disregarded all the other problems she apparently realized and solely focus on you."

She knew it was a logical answer. Carly could have easily used their relationship as a way to distracted away from her own faults as she attempted with making snide comments about her and Freddie being together when the brunette first found out about them.

"Were you tempted to stay?"

"Would you think less of me if my answer was yes?"

She lifted her head off his shoulder so that her bluish/green eyes could meet his soft brown eyes. She blew out a slow breath through her nose and whispered with a somewhat frightened tone, "Would you of me in regards to Beck?"

Freddie tightened his left arm around her waist and lifted her slightly so his lips could reach her then softly enveloped them for a moment and catching the dark brunette off guard for a moment. She closed her eyes and softly returned the kiss after the initial moment of shock.

They pulled their lips apart after a few seconds then she rested her forehead against his forehead. They kept their respective eyes closed as they heard the lyrics to another song on the playlist in the back ground, _"…nobody's perfect, I know it ain't easy giving up your heart, trust me, I've learned it…"_

They simultaneously snorted out a breath and grinned. Freddie was the first to speak, "I think that sums us up."

She replied with a bit of laughter in her voice, "I guess so…"

The dark brunette lifted her head and looked into Freddie's opening eyes. "I, you Freddie Benson."

"I, you too, Jade West," he answered with a grin then the dark brunette snuggled her head back into his shoulder and let a smile play on her lips as she intended to spend the rest of the night by his side.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this update. I hope that I was able to meet people's expectations. Thanks everyone and I will hopefully see you next Friday with another installment.<p> 


	16. Chapter 16

Author's Note: Hello everyone. I hope everyone had a pleasant week. I really hoped you enjoyed the last two chapters and thank you all for the reviews and your continued readership. Well, on with the next chapter.

Wickedmatt717, I'm glad that you are enjoying this crossover and it has changed your perception on how they can be made. I believe crossovers are some of the hardest pieces to write and because most are not written with care, most people don't like them.

Anonymous reviewer: I'm glad you are enjoying this story and the exploration of Jade as a separate character.

* * *

><p>Chapter 16<p>

Sikowitz's Advance Acting Class  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Tuesday, October 11, 2011

He may have been attending Hollywood Arts for the last month and may have had his share of odd occurrences at Ridgeway High School, but Freddie Benson was still getting use to some things while attending the performing arts high school while sitting in Sikowitz's Advance Acting class.

The first thing that may have been considered odd was that no one thought it was inappropriate nor Sikowitz mentioning that it was a problem that Freddie and Jade could have their seats so close together that he could wrap an arm around her waist and she lay her head on his left shoulder while the pair listened to the lesson. Briggs and Howard would have a fit at this level of PDA, but no one seemed to think it was odd. The most he got was the brief surprised glance from a few individuals at seeing really for the first time the pair having physical contact with one another after what become a viral video of the couple kissing in the middle of the hallway last Tuesday from a random student just having their phone out at the right time. He didn't even get a glance or comment from Beck because the Canadian born actor wasn't in class today due to working on some project he had to get done that was listed on the whiteboard behind the stage.

The second odd thing would be Sikowitz's lesson for today: Tori and André standing on the stage with metal buckets on each of their heads while the rest of the class wore peculiar expressions watching the pair attempt to act out a scene. No one in the classroom thought that this method to get across a lesson was peculiar. Freddie just mentally shrugged his shoulders and went along for the ride.

Tori spoke and it echoed in the bucket, "I don't want to argue with you. I just want us to be happy."

Freddie suppressed a smirk at how much that could apply to him and others.

"What did she say?" André asked with a confused tone as he turned his body to what he thought was the front of the stage.

The light brunette repeated the songsmith's actions and asked, "What did he say?"

"I can't hear," André followed up.

Sikowitz walked up on stage and instructed, "Okay, okay take them off." He stopped behind the two students and rested a hand on each of their backs between their respective shoulder blades and continued, "See, it's not so easy to perform a scene with a bucket on your head. Is it?"

"No," Tori agreed while holding on to her bucket.

André sat is bucket down and answered, "It's difficult."

"Yes, well, class dismissed."

"But we still have more time," Jade pointed out as she lifted her head off of Freddie's shoulder and motioned with her left hand while André and Tori walked off stage and back to their seats.

"We do? How much?" he asked surprised at the time while holding the two buckets in his left hand stacked one in the other.

"Fifty-five minutes," Robbie answered as he looked up from his PearPhone.

"Oh? Oh, I actually do have something to discuss with _some of you_," he finished in an excited tone as he walked to his left side of the stage to put away the silver metal buckets. "Tori, Cat, André, Robbie, Jade, Freddie, please stay, the rest of you may wonder the halls," he instructed as he cut through the middle of the classroom to reach the back entrance and open the door to let the rest of the students out.

As the other students got up from their seats and passed him, the acting teacher commented, "Enjoy your day, thanks for coming. I'm here all week. Don't for get to tip your nurses and clowns."

Freddie motioned his head in farewell to Ava as she joined the group and left the classroom.

Once the rest of the class had left, Cat asked in a curious tone while playing with the end of her hair with her fingers, "Why did you make them leave?"

Sikowitz put on an apprehensive expression and hissed for a moment then replied, "I don't know… they never _talk_."

Tori raised her brow and motioned with her hands as she added, "Yeah, they just sit there and react."

Freddie laughed, "You never ask them anything. You call on us to do everything, so why are you surprised that they don't participate?"

Sikowitz frowned for a moment as he turned his attention to the Seattle native.

"So what do you want from us?" Jade asked with mild irritation and to interrupt before anything happened between the teacher and student.

Sikowitz raised his hand up in the air and asked, "Who likes parades?"

"Antonio Banderas," Robbie replied with a raised hand.

"Hillbillies!" Rex shouted after him.

"No one," Jade commented with more irritation filling her voice.

"Oh come on, parades are fun," Sikowitz countered with a slightly pout tone.

Cat looked up to the acting teacher and began softly, "One time, my brother was in a parade, but he was inappropriate so the parade people called the police, now he's not allowed to be in parades… or be near horses."

The other students spared glances towards one another for a few seconds until Freddie spoke up with a dry tone, "Yes, let's all take a moment to mentally mock her brother for his behavior caused from his dramatic head injury from his hotel fall that he never fully recovered. Let's take the moment to be that heartless and cruel."

The rest had the decency to look ashamed for a moment then Jade pulled away from Freddie's grip to lean forward and held out her keys to Cat and instructed, "Play with the pretty keys."

Cat softly giggled then took the keys and answered, "'kay, 'kay." She started dangling them in front of her face.

Sikowitz blow out a breath then took a seat on the floor of the stage area and rested his elbows on his knees. "So you all know about the woman I've been dating Felicia?"

The rest looked among them and mumbled their negatives except for Freddie as he asked with a surprise tone, "You found yourself a new girlfriend already?"

Sikowitz slightly frowned as he looked back at Freddie.

Freddie cracked a smile. "Week and a half is impressive getting a new girlfriend."

"Thanks… well anyway, she the creative director of this year's Parade Parade."

"Parade, parade?" André asked curiously.

"I've never heard of that," Tori commented with a confused expression.

Sikowitz raised his pointer finger and motioned his hand in front of his face. "Exactly, it's a parade to help raise awareness of parades. Anyway, I sorta promised Felicia that I would get some of my most," he patted Cat's knee and causing the red head to laugh and cover her mouth with her left hand as the acting teacher finished, "creative students to build a float and perform."

"In the Parade Parade?" Tori asked for confirmation.

"Yes, so who would like to—"

Jade got out of her seat and dashed out of the room much to Freddie's surprise.

Sikowitz mentally brushed away Jade's departure then asked, "How about the rest of you?"

They all appeared to be hesitant in volunteering to for such a project.

"Would you guys like to build a float and do a little song in the parade? For sweet daddy Sikowitz?" he finished by putting on a sad frown and puppy dog eyes.

Freddie frowned and immediately jumped up from his seat and grabbed his book bag resting beside his seat. The others looked to him, but he ignored them as he headed out the door.

The brown eyed teenager quickly caught up with the dark brunette. She quickly turned and looked at him with an annoyed expression and nearly hissed out, "What?"

"Nothing," he replied with a casual shake of his head.

She immediately frowned in confusion with a furled brow. "You don't come out to get me to come back?"

"Nope," he answered playfully.

"Then why did you leave?"

The smile left his face and was replaced with a look of annoyance. The annoyance carried in his voice as he explained, "He put on this puppy dog face and asked if we would do it for 'sweet daddy Sikowitz'. I was not going to sit there and have him try to emotionally guilt trip me into anything. I have had enough of that for a lifetime."

The dark brunette nodded her support as Sikowitz tactic would obviously strike a nerve with the Seattle native. She didn't dwell on it too long as she knew he wouldn't want to dredge up any memories at the moment besides that fact that she suddenly realized something. She rolled her eyes, tilted her head slightly to the side then let out a breath. "I forgot my keys," she whispered then turned back to the classroom.

Jade followed by Freddie walked back in the room interrupting whatever Tori and Sikowitz were discussing and offered her hand out to Cat when she reached the redhead. "Give me my keys back."

Cat dropped the keys in the taller teenager's hand.

The dark haired girl looked to her keys and immediately noticed one was missing. She motioned with her keys to the sitting redhead and asked with a surprise tone, "Where's my house key?"

Cat frowned and rested her left hand over her stomach then mumbled sadly, "Ah, oh…"

Tori let out a brief sigh and looked to Freddie who was shaking his head in momentary disbelief while Jade put on an expression of 'Are you kidding me?'

The lighter brunette picked up her bag. "I'll take her to the nurse."

"I'll go with you," Freddie spoke up with a sigh.

Cat picked up her book bag then Tori took her by the right hand while Freddie took her by the left hand.

"I swallowed it," the redhead mumbled as she was led by the hand towards the door by the stage.

"We'll see it again," Tori replied as she let out a breath.

Hallway outside School Nurse's Office  
>Hollywood Arts High School<p>

Freddie smashed his hand against the face of the snack machine to get the Skittle pack to fall out of the machine after it got hung up on the twisted metal holder that held the various candies and snacks in place. The red colored pack finally dislodged and fell down to the receptacle. He quickly bent down and slid his hand to retrieve the multi-flavored candy.

He turned to see Tori sitting on a bench waiting a bit impatient as she had her arms crossed and left foot bouncing as the leg rested on top of the other. She gave him a questioning look for the candy and he replied casually, "We have to get her something to get the bad taste out of her mouth."

"I don't understand."

He answered her with a clipped tone, "She just swallowed it, so it's not coming out the back end yet, so…"

Tori nodded her head with a hint of disgust, "So it's got to come out the front end."

He raised his eyebrows and nodded at her as he spoke down at her, "Yeah."

The lighter brunette frowned at him and asked with a slightly impatient tone turned on him, "Okay, what's up? You were distant after the concert on Friday, you ignored my texts during the weekend and you've been standoffish with me since yesterday."

Freddie tightened his jaw and narrowed his gaze at the sitting actress for a moment as he rested his back against the machine then answered, "You can't tell me that André didn't tell you what we talked about after the performance and figure why you're not exactly one of my favorite people at the moment."

Tori's annoyed expression dropped and was replaced with an apprehensive expression as she brought her arms tighter around herself.

Freddie snorted out a breath then continued, "Yeah, I figured it out and he told me the rest: you suggested to him that he should sing a song he wrote about Jade and him wanting to try to get with her despite her being with _me_."

She blew out a breath and somewhat relaxed her arms. "Look, I'm sorry—"

Freddie snapped in a low tone, "I'm tired of hearing people say they're sorry after the fact when they should have known better in the first place. How about you _not_ do the stupid thing in the first place?"

"Hey, I was trying to help André, you and Jade," she countered in a defensive tone.

"By suggesting that he sing a love song he wrote about her during a concert? Why didn't you give him the advice of: 'Keep your mouth shut André until it passes'?"

She pulled her arms away from her body and motioned her hands towards him as she countered, "He needed to let his feelings outs."

"Why?" he asked in a tone challenging the seriousness of the assertion.

"Because he said it made him wonky in the head if he didn't."

Freddie rolled his eyes before answering, "That sounds like a weak chizz excuse to me, but if it's true, and I'm only saying that for the sake of discussion, why didn't he just come to me?"

"He thought you would get mad at him if you found out and that it would be a betrayal—"

"Well I did find out and not by him being man enough and telling me what happened in the first place. I would have understood. It happened to..." Freddie shook his head as his anger waned, but finished with a tired breath, "But he couldn't do that, I had to force the issue after singing about him 'being in love' with her to a good chunk of the school with the added insult of not caring that she's with me. You thought that he singing it wasn't a betrayal on his and your part?"

Tori was about to reply, but very sad looking Cat rubbing her stomach exited the nurse's office with Nurse Kotter walking beside her with an arm around her shoulders.

Freddie pushed off of the vending machine and Tori stood up to meet their mutual friend.

"My mouth still tastes icky," the childlike teenager mumbled in a sad tone.

"We know," Freddie replied with a comforting smile and warm eyes. He tore the top off the bag then gently took the red velvet haired teenager's hand to pour a few of the rainbow colored candy in her hand. "Eat some of these."

The redhead continued to wear a frown as she popped a few of the pieces of candy in her mouth. She sucked on the fruit candy for a few seconds and she immediately put on a bright smile enjoying the taste and banishing the awful aftertaste of her vomit even after several mouth washings.

Nurse Kotter dropped her arm from Cat and reached into a pocket of her nursing smock and pulled out a key to hand to Freddie. "Here's the key. We disinfected it, so it's fine," she assured the dark haired teenager and handed the key to him. She continued by reaching into her other pocket and giving Freddie a small bag of saltine crackers then glancing at Cat, "Make sure she eats the crackers to settle her stomach before lunch."

Freddie gave her a reassuring nod as he answered, "We will. We're going to go ahead and take her to lunch." The muscular teenager put a comforting arm around Cat and gave her a few more Skittles. The redhead was oblivious to the dark haired teenagers giving each other guarded glances as she ate a few more pieces of candy and they led her out for lunch.

Guidance Counselor's Office  
>Hollywood Arts<br>Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Lane sat comfortably in his wicker chair as he leaned forward and rested his feet against the decorative carved table. He looked to see Freddie sitting across from him just apparently relaxed in the worn couch, but could sense from the teenager a bit of tension.

Lane started off casually with an inviting smile, "So… that was a… enlightening session last week?"

Freddie resisted rolling his eyes as he responded, "That's one way to put it."

"So you and Jade are doing alright after your talk?"

Freddie gave him a slight frown.

Lane pointed at him with a grin. "You two completely opened up your relationship last week, so it's a fair question."

The dark haired teenager looked up at the ceiling and slightly shook his head as he blew out a breath, "I don't have much choice but to trust you now, I suppose."

The counselor slightly frowned as he had hoped that being allowed to remain in the room as the pair worked out some major issues in front of him would have translated into a more open and trusting relationship between student and counselor. He asked with a guarded tone, "So it's more out of pragmatism?"

Freddie answered with a dry tone, "After Friday night, probably more so now."

Lane wasn't going to let go of the inadvertent open that Freddie allowed with his stray comment and quickly asked, "What happened Friday night?"

Freddie covered his mouth with his hand for a moment before answering, "You know that song André sung Friday night?"

"Yeah? That was a great performance by André and Tori," he agreed cheerfully.

Freddie slightly shook his head then leaned forward to rest his forearms on his knees. "He was talking about Jade… the song was his feelings about Jade."

Lane dropped his smile as he looked to the teenager then cautiously asked, "Freddie… why do you think that?"

"The way he looked at her as he sung it and—"

The counselor took a slow breath then pursed his lips for a second before interrupting, "Are you sure you're not just projecting your own insecurities about how you started your relationship with Jade?"

Freddie was up on his feet in an instant and looked down at the still sitting guidance counselor. "I didn't steal her from Beck! They broke up weeks before I even showed up in L.A. I tried to push them back together when you came back from Yerba!"

Lane leaned back in his chair and stared up at the irritated teenager. He asked in a calm voice trying to diffuse a potential emotional landmine that that he inadvertently led Freddie into stepping on, "You tried to push them back together? What did you mean by that?"

Freddie closed his eyes and took a breath. He slowly released it and opened his eyes. "I tried to set it up where they would spend as much time as they could when all of you came back from Yerba. I left as soon as I could from the airport and I tried to skip the celebration dinner so they could spend it together. They may not have gotten back together on the spot, but they could at least get back on track to putting themselves back together."

"Why did you try to do that?"

"To make her happy," he answered slightly annoyed.

"Why?"

"Because I care about her," Freddie snapped as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

Lane tried to suppress a smile at the simple, but completely explanation. "Why didn't you think it worked?"

"Because she chose me that night… she wouldn't let me push her away. She told me that I was coming with her or she was staying there… she wouldn't let me 'fall on my sword'… she said she wasn't Carly…" Freddie snorted out an annoyed breath then continued, "Before you interpreted me, I was going to tell you why it isn't just in my head: André admitted that the song was about Jade to me after I confronted him about my suspicions. He even told me that it was _Tori's_ idea that he should sing the song for the concert."

Lane put on a worried expression. He may have not understand the context of what Jade had meant in saying to Freddie that she wasn't Carly, but he understood how important it must be for the teenager as it was probably the catalyst for Freddie and Jade's relationship shifting from friendship into what would eventually become the couple's current relationship. However, he was more concerned that Freddie had nearly spat out Tori's name when bringing up the singer with what he was obviously seeing as a possible threat to his relationship with Jade and potential problem that could seriously damage the Seattle native's friendship with her and André.

The last thing he needed was for Freddie to start worrying about his current friendships when he was still dealing with the last ones disintegrating and leading him to Los Angeles in the first place.

Lane stepped out of the hanging chair then walked around to his desk. He picked up the phone receiver to his ear and quickly dialed an extension. A moment or so later, he asked, "Could you send Tori Vega down to my office?" He nodded along apparently getting a confirmation then gently placed the receiver back in the phone base.

"Why are you calling her?"

Lane gave him a quick look, but remained quiet as he walked around the desk and rested against the front of it.

Freddie gave a slight shake of his head as he retook his seat on the couch as they waited for the singer.

About a minute or so later, Tori entered the office and Freddie gave the girl a passing glance over his shoulder then looked forward to the direction of the still slightly swinging wicker chair.

Tori slightly frowned then turned her attention to Lane. "You wanted to see me?"

Lane motioned with a hand between the standing actress and the sitting technical producer and answered, "Actually, I wanted you two to talk."

Freddie snorted out and crossed his arms over his chest. He retorted with barely contained sarcasm, "I really don't have anything to say to her."

"Fine then, let her talk," he countered then motioned for Tori to have a seat next to Freddie. "He's upset about what happened at the Friday Night Concert, specifically that André singing his song and you apparently the one that suggested it."

The actress wore an awkward expression as she sat down next to Freddie. Tori desperately spoke, "Freddie… he was torn up about more than I can put into words."

Freddie snapped his head to look at her equally brown eyes to his own. He didn't bother to hide his annoyance slipping into his voice, "And I told you he should have just kept his mouth shut or come to me about it."

"Well he obviously couldn't do the former, so I was trying to help him get over her. I even dressed up as Jade—"

Freddie blinked and asked with disbelief, "You dressed up as Jade?"

Tori cleared her throat and looked somewhat embarrassed with the confession. "Yes, I wanted to show him why he shouldn't be in love with a girl like her."

Freddie clenched his jaw tight and stared hard at the brunette. He took a few calming breaths as the singer started to look nervous under the scrutiny of the former Seattleite. "You tried to show him why he shouldn't be in love with _a girl like Jade_? I _don't appreciate that_ part Tori. It sounds like something Carly or Sam might say, especially Sam would say. And you know how I feel about _her_," he finished with evident disgust in his voice.

A strong hint of blush formed on the singer's cheeks. She tried several times to clear her voice before she was finally able to whisper, "Freddie… I didn't mean it to be offensive, just… the rest of us don't see her like you do. We only see the mean and scary side of her most of the time. That's what I was trying to show him and why it wouldn't work. You know, just trying to snap him out of it."

"Because she's mean? Someone shouldn't like her because she can be mean at times? It turns out that I actually like mean girls and there are plenty of guys that wouldn't think that's a problem… heck, Beck for the last three years didn't think it was a problem until she crossed the line too many times with you." Freddie smirked and asked with a sarcastic tone, "Maybe I should ask Jade to dress up as you and convince André that he shouldn't like you because you're just a little prissy at times? I mean he wrote a love song for you and sung it to impress his record label."

Tori narrowed her eyes on the young man as she was becoming offended by his words and he stared right back at her.

Lane spoke up, "Freddie, I think that's enough."

The pair looked to the guidance counselor still leaning against his desk. "She's not Carly and she's not Sam or anyone else from Seattle, she's your friend—"

"That dressed up as Jade to try to show André what a lousy choice Jade is for a partner then tell him that it was a good idea to sing a song about his so-called love for her to the school and think I would be too stupid not to realize it. Why do you think it hurts?" Freddie clenched his jaw tight as he turned his head away from looking at Lane to focus his attention on the table. The teenager breathed in and out slowly as he was apparently trying to remain calm.

Lane crossed his arms over his chest while Tori took a slow breath and her building anger crumpled and washed away as a sandcastle washed way with the waves. She turned in her seat and wrapped her arms around Freddie's shoulders and across his chest to rest her head on his shoulder. "I know you said you were tired of hearing people saying they're sorry, but I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you," she whispered sadly then snorted out a sad laugh, "I was trying to go for the complete opposite actually."

Freddie closed his eyes and let his head drop to his left and rest his temple against the crown of Tori's head. He reached up with his left arm and gently clasped Tori's forearm that crossed his chest with the girl pulling him tighter against him.

Lane held his breath as he watched the pair for a few moments apparently reconciling. He noticed that Freddie was keeping his jaw clenched tight trying to hold his composer as he appeared weary from the last few days apparently. He would have preferred to leave the pair to continue, but he needed to know what Tori had meant by 'tired of hearing people saying they're sorry'.

"Why's that Freddie?"

"What?" Freddie asked with surprise as he lifted his head to meet Lane's eyes.

"Why are you tired of hearing people saying they're sorry? Did people try to apologize in Seattle?"

Tori continued to hold on to Freddie as the teenager answered, "Several… Spencer, Principal Franklin, unspoken ones from a few of my acquaintances at Ridgeway… and Carly. I couldn't accept them and I don't know why." He shook his head and closed his eyes as he whispered in a tired voice, "They finally admitted what they did to me was wrong and at least said they were sorry, but… it didn't make any difference. It just pissed me off more."

Lane nodded along. "Do you think they were sincere?"

"I'm not sure… I just think… they have other reasons then trying to truly make amends. Spencer is very child like at times, not as bad as Cat, but he didn't do anything and I feel his apology is more due to his father shaming him into one, but I do appreciate him stepping up at the Freezie Queen when he saw things had gone too far. A little late, but he finally did try when it counted and it's probably why I really don't resent him."

He let out a slow breath before continuing with Tori now resting her chin on Freddie's shoulder. "Franklin maybe is just covering his ass, because he knows how easily he could get fired if it gets out what he allowed to happen to me, especially if it comes out when another teenager has committed suicide from being bullied or taking revenge at their school hits the news."

Lane realized how unpleasantness of that news coming out. "And Carly?"

Freddie glanced to Tori's worried expression. Her supportive hug was comforting and the idea crossed his mind that if he shared a relationship with Carly as the one Tori and André possessed, he wouldn't be here in the first place, but that wasn't the case. He looked back to Lane and answered, "I think she's truly sorry, but I'm not ready to forgive her… I don't think I know how… I don't' know if it really makes any difference or not."

Lane spoke up, "Or what would it mean?"

Freddie blinked as he was confused by the question.

The guidance counselor cleared his throat then started, "If you forgive her and the others and they change their ways, why stay here? You could go back and pick up your life in Seattle with everything you know, but without all the things that made you miserable. Is that what you're afraid of facing? The possibility that you can have it all back?"

Freddie sucked in a deep breath then wiggled out of Tori's grasp to get up. He cleared his throat and commented as forcefully as he could manage, "I think me and Tori need to get back to class."

He didn't wait for response as he picked up his book bag and threw it over his shoulder as he headed out of the office. He stopped at the door while the pair looked at his back and he called out, "Tori? "Jade doesn't… she doesn't…" he started then ran a hand over his mouth and chin from what the lighter brunette could tell from her seat. "It bothers her that people only see her scary side, but she's too afraid to admit it. She basically screams it in her 'Jade with Tots' videos." The next moment he was out the door.

Tori looked to Lane with a worried expression, but he sadly shook his head and looked down at the floor.


	17. Chapter 17

Author's Note: Hello everyone. I hope everyone had a nice week. Thanks again for reading and reviewing last week. I originally split this into two chapters so that each would be about five thousand words each, but it looks like the second half turned out to be nearly nine thousand, but I don't think you'll complain.

Last week's Victorious was pretty interesting. Miss Gillies and Miss Justice have some beautiful voices and I think I'll have an interesting interpretation when I finally get around to that episode in the story.

I need to take a moment and address something as this chapter ironically touches on this subject: I was reading something on this thing called Tumblr (yeah, I'm really that out of touch where Tumblr is new to me), where someone made it a point to respond to one of those Nickelodeon confessions complaining about the abuse that Freddie has suffered at the hands of Sam. This person's response was to forcibly say that what Sam does not abuse Freddie, yet in their following post (the same day), reblogged that this person cares that everyday (statistically speaking) seventeen teens will take their own lives due to bullying. *Blink* *Blink* *Blink* This does not compute with me and I would love to know how this person defines bullying when he or she obviously must exclude repeated verbal harassment, repeated public humiliation, repeated destruction of personal property, sabotaging of life goals, threats of violence for not complying with the bully's wishes and repeated physical assaults, in his or her definition of bullying to be able to say that Sam DOESN'T abuse/bully Freddie.

I'm done with my public service announcement, on with the story.

* * *

><p>Chapter 17<p>

Vega Residence  
>Wednesday, October 12, 2011<p>

The faded black (and still with blue driver's door) Charger still sounded like a top of the line vehicle despite its still beaten up appearance as Freddie pulled the vehicle into the Vega driveway. The vehicle came to a halt and Jade was the first one to exit the car as she was eager to have a few words with her friends and partially took it out on slamming the car door.

Freddie stepped out of the driver's side then commented as he was shutting the door, "So national TV?"

Jade wore an irritated expression on her face as the pair made their way to the Vega's door. "Yep, and they think they are going to do it without us?"

Freddie shrugged a shoulder with a playful smile as he joined her in step towards the door. "In fairness, you did walk out before Sikowitz pointed out that particular perk."

She turned her head and focused her irritated look at him.

He warmly smiled back and answered, "I'm just saying…"

The dark brunette rolled her eyes at his disarming smile and turned her attention to the Vega door as the couple was reaching the entrance. The door suddenly opened and Trina came storming out for a moment then opened the door and poked her head back inside the house.

"I don't even want to be in it," Trina whined as she pulled the door closed as Jade was trying to enter the Vega residence. "Ow," Jade shouted as her left arm slammed into the door while Freddie winced at seeing the occurrence and Trina stormed away without saying a word to them.

"Your sister just elbowed me in my lung," the singer complained in a harsh tone that she directed at Tori as the couple entered the home.

Robbie jumped up off of his seat on the couch and cheerfully offered, "I'll get you some ice—"

"Sit down!" Jade shouted as Freddie shut the door behind them.

Tori and Cat were standing behind the second couch near the kitchen with the redhead holding a glass. Tori gave Freddie a slight smile and a nod of her head then turned her attention to Jade and asked with a slightly annoyed tone, "I'm sorry, did someone invite you here?"

Jade walked to the end of the left red couch and rested her left hand on the back of it and slightly leaned her wait against the piece of furniture as she asked, "Beck told me that you were performing on national TV?"

"So?" Tori asked with a raised eyebrow, unsure as to what was her point.

"And you think you're doing that without us?" the green and blue streaked hair teenager asked back with a challenging voice.

The songsmith looked to the couple and stated, "You two stormed out of Sikowitz's class."

Jade took a step forward towards André and frowned showing her lack of patience with him.

"I feel Jade and Freddie should be included," André mumbled out fearfully as he leaned backwards in his seat and looked to the rest of the group.

Jade smiled and let out a barely audible laugh as she took a seat at the end of the couch. Freddie stood at her side and rested a hand on the backrest of the couch just between the girl's shoulder blades.

The former Seattleite snorted out with a smirk to himself as he commented, "And you thought you were…" He trailed off then caught sight of Tori's concerned glance and André's worried expression. He shook his head and smiled, "Never mind."

Jade frowned slightly and her brow furled as she looked up to her boyfriend.

"It's not important," he whispered to her.

Freddie looked back to André and replied to his assertion about leaving, "I left because Sikowitz tried to emotionally guilt trip me. I swear to God if he would have said 'Please, for me?' I would have thrown something at him."

The rest of the group shared glances with one another then turned their attention to Freddie.

He quickly replied with a hint of annoyance in his voice, "Long story that I am not getting into. I'm not here to be a part of your float."

Tori pursed her lips as she was quite confused as she asked, "You don't want to be on national TV?"

He pointed to himself with his right hand, "I'm still Freddie Benson after all these months and I've been on TV several times: FoodTV with the spaghetti tacos like we ate last Friday night, once with your identical twin on Pay-Per-View for charity, and re-launching Ginger Fox's career. I don't need the exposure; besides, they see me they would ignore the rest of you to try to get me to answer the question of the real reason why I left iCarly."

Tori gave him an awkward, but understanding expression as the rest nodded along with the explanation. The lighter brunette turned her attention back to the matter at hand. "Okay, so what's our float going to be?"

André shrugged a shoulder as he leaned back on the couch, "Someone should just pick an idea."

"So who's going to pick?"

Robbie was leaning back in the second half of the couch on the right side of the living room with his left hand against his mouth. "Well, luckily I have the new PearPad app called, Spin-a-ma-jig," he commented as he pulled out his Mark One PearPad from his right.

The rest groaned as Cat whispered as she walked around and had a seat on the couch cross-legged and hugged a pillow in her lap, "Robbie?"

"Just let me finish inputting our faces and now I stroke this and this wheel spin randomly until it lands on one of us," the curly haired teenager continued happily as he stood up between the couches.

Cat asked curiously with her childlike voice, "And that person gets to pick what the float is going to be?"

Jade thought something sarcastic, something along the lines of a kidney transplant, but held back her tongue with a visible sign of clenching her jaw. She was trying her best to be more tolerant of the childish nature of the redhead.

"Yes, go ahead," Tori answered patiently then motioned towards Robbie.

"Okay, here it goes," Robbie replied then swept his hand across the face of his PearPad. The wheel started spinning. The app continued to spin for a few more moments as they looked on impatiently.

"I can't remember a time that this wasn't happening," Jade complained and shrugged her left shoulder.

"I think it is almost done," Robbie replied in an effort to have them be a little more patient for the app to finish spinning.

It finally landed on Cat.

"Oh my God, it stopped on my face!" the redhead shouted gleefully.

Jade looked to the redhead and smiled. She wasn't sure why, but she did anyway. She guessed she could deal with a little of Cat's hyper-happiness for the moment. It was surprisingly becoming easier to handle over the last few weeks or maybe she really just wanted to return the favor to the redhead for putting up with her for so many years.

Tori replied happily, "So, you get to pick what our float gets to be."

Cat grinned widely as she looked to the pillow and glass in her lap.

André asked curiously, "So what's it going to be Cat?"

She let out a soft laugh as a thought popped in her mind.

Sikowitz's Classroom  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Thursday, October 13, 2011<p>

Cat had drawn a giant cupcake that took up almost the entire whiteboard as Jade, Freddie, Tori, Robbie, Sikowitz and André stood just in front of the stage looking at the board.

Sikowitz's asked with crossed arms over his chest, "A giant cupcake?"

Cat laughed and nodded her head.

"Alright," he replied then turned around and walked out of the classroom.

Freddie immediately frowned at the idea, but remained silent. He hoped that no one would notice his expression, but of course Jade was not blind to his shift in expressions.

Music Room

Freddie and André were having another one of their practice sessions with the guitar with Freddie drumming along on his guitar as he sat across from André as the experienced musician was helping the technical producer work on his notes.

André was apprehensive of course as the pair had only exchanged friendly and courteous greetings with one another in the hallways or class, but really nothing more than those courtesies since last Friday night. The songsmith had attempted to clear his throat several times during the practice which was starting to grate on Freddie's nerves.

The Los Angeles immigrant kept his focus on the chords he was trying to manipulate as he commented, "If you have something to say André, say it."

The other teenager blew out a breath then sat his guitar beside to his left as he responded, "I want to let you know that I'm over Jade. It was just a little bit of infatuation. You don't have to worry about me at all."

Freddie maintained his focus on the guitar as he was determine to learn to play the instrument at least proficiently to justify being at the school. He answered the experience musician with a calm voice almost as if they were talking about something trivial instead of something as serious as a friend having feelings for his significant other, "I was never worried about you. I'm only concerned about one guy in regards to Jade… and that's only to a point and you are not him."

André took a quick breath before asking, "You think Jade will go back to Beck?"

Freddie finally looked up from his guitar and eyed André in such a way as if asking was the songsmith seriously asking him that question.

André looked embarrassed for a moment, but Freddie followed up as if he was passing on some great knowledge as a sage to a student, "The greatest challenge you will ever face when trying to be with someone is the memory of their past love… and your own." Freddie looked back down to focus on the guitar in his hands and practicing his cords.

The musician looked on to the Seattle native in a new light finally realizing what Freddie and Jade had told them that first day the couple was together when they all met up at the Freezie Queen months ago about how tough it was for Freddie to really move on from Carly and Jade moving on from Beck. He was humbled at realizing how easy he and others had it if they wanted to be in a relationship.

"I'm still kind of pissed you sung that publicly to her… but I'll get over it." He shrugged his right shoulder. "That's what friends do… but that's now partial royalties on one song and one full song you owe me," Freddie finished with a smirk, but not looking up from his guitar.

André cracked a grin and shook his head then picked up his guitar. "Now we're going to pick up the pace a little bit."

Asphalt Café  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Friday, October 14, 2011<p>

It was about an hour after the final bell and Freddie was frantically trying to help out anyway he could inside the cupcake float before he had to leave for work. He had missed the last to Fridays due to going home and last week's Friday Night Concert and he knew he would be pushing his luck if he missed a third week in a row. He was so focused on making sure a board was in place with his hammering that he didn't initially hear Jade finishing her inspection of two of porthole windows of the top half of the cupcake float and stepped down the two steps to come up behind him.

She whispered between him swinging the hammer, "Okay, tell me what's wrong,"

He replied in a dry tone and rolled his eyes, "Nothing's wrong."

"Hey, now you're blowing me off," she responded with an irritated voice and crossed arms under her chest.

He finished nailing the nail down into the board then replied, "I really don't want to talk about it. It's neither the time nor the place."

He started on another nail for the support beam as Jade stated, "So you're just going to bury it… like that ever worked out for you before."

He stopped the hammering and turned around to face her with a frown.

She held her stare towards him as she was not going to yield.

The brown eyed teenager blew out a breath. He was not up for the discussing the situation with André and Tori at the moment, especially since André still wanted to keep quiet about the whole incident, but he figured that he could talk about he other thing that annoyed him since Cat put out the idea that they were going to build a giant cupcake as a float.

He turned and had a seat on the bench they had constructed on the right side of the cupcake float between the stairwell and back entrance. Jade followed suit by having a seat next to him. She looked to give a quick glance to see Cat having a conversation about the pajamas that Andra and Beck were having while Tori was paying attention screwing down a support beam, so she felt it was safe to speak.

Freddie spared her a quick glance then whispered, "Cupcakes remind of a few things I don't want to remember right now."

The dark brunette blinked as she was surprised with the unexpected explanation.

Freddie cracked a smile and looked off to the other side of the float, but not really paying attention to the bare wall. "We… Carly, Sam and I use to play cupcake toss. We'd have this tray filled with nothing but icing and we'd dip our cupcakes in as much icing as possible then fling them at the glass door that separated the kitchen from the back hallway of Carly's apartment. The first one to fall off the door would be the loser."

He snorted out a laugh and grinned happily, "Then sometimes after a good show, Carly would treat us to cupcakes… her favorite kind is red velvet just like Cat. She loves cupcakes… she got it from her mom… it's one of the reason she's called cupcake by Spencer and Sam."

He continued looking forward and partially ignoring her. He frowned slightly as he finished, "Why does something as inconsequential as a cupcake have to bother me so much?"

Jade leaned over to rest her head on his shoulder then whispered, "It's not about the cupcake. It's about you're still separating the good from the bad that Lane told you about, like your locker or the spaghetti tacos."

"Yeah, I guess I'm still working on that…"

She lifted her head and looked on his profile with a bashful smile, "You don't have to do this."

He turned his head and gave her a playful grin. "Of course I do. This is your chance and everyone else's to get noticed." He shrugged his shoulders as he finished, "I have to help."

She mouthed, "Thank you."

They looked to one another warmly for a few seconds until they heard André complain and motion to what he was wearing, "We don't want to wear these."

Cat held the staple gun and asked a little perplexed, "Why don't you guys like your costumes?"

Beck folded his arms and asked in disbelief that she was asked such a thing, "Why?"

"They are candy jammies; they go perfect with our cupcake theme," she replied in a lighthearted tone.

"Yeah they do, I think they are rad cool," Robbie spoke up happily as he partially made his way down the winding staircase.

Freddie snorted out a laugh, "Of course you do; you're still trying to get out of the dog house with her for the standees."

Robbie frowned and narrowed his look at Freddie.

The brown eye teenager grinned in response then chuckled, "We still need to talk about that."

Jade suppressed a laugh at hearing Freddie's comeback at Robbie as she stood up. "Yeah, they look adorable," she agreed with Robbie with a lightly sarcastic tone while looking at the pajama clad teenagers then crossed her arms and smiled brightly.

Tori turned away from the wall and pointed out, "You know she wants us all to wear them?"

Jade immediately turned to Cat and frowned. She replied dryly, "I will pop your head like a zit."

Cat palmed her head and whispered out, "Graphic."

Freddie rolled his eyes and snorted out trying to keep the smile off of his face. "Oh, come on, it's not that bad."

Jade looked to her boyfriend with a raised eyebrow and a look on her face that screamed, '_Are you kidding_?'

André blinked and replied with obvious irritation, "Easy for you to say, you're not going to be wearing one."

Freddie chuckled then grinned back at the songsmith as he replied, "Hey, I've had my fair share of having to wear ridiculous costumes. I dressed as a giant flashlight one Christmas… then no one to help me out of it. Did you see what I wore on the Fluffy and Pieta sketches? Did you see how ridiculous I looked in that costume of some nineteenth century school boy?" He raised his hands up as he finished, "Come on, Fredward Cullen? But I did draw the line at no glitter for sparkling. Besides, you're the ones that want to perform on national television."

Tori laughed, "You already had enough girls swooning over you."

Freddie rolled his eyes and mumbled, "You have no idea…"

Jade slightly frowned at the comment, but it wasn't something that she wasn't aware of in regards to his popularity.

The guys each let out a sigh and were muffled from any kind of argument with the former Tech-Producer.

The back door to the float opened and Sikowitz stepped inside, grinning widely as he glanced over the interior. "Ohhh… your float is looking gigantically delicious."

Tori grinned as she replied, "I know it's pretty cool, huh?"

"Are you going to finish in time?"

Tori answered confidently with a bit of humor in her voice, "We are going to work all night if we have to; we're git-r-done."

"Excellent, Felicia will be so—" Sikowitz started laughing as he saw André and Beck in their pajamas then started dancing.

* * *

><p>Freddie had his arms crossed over his chest as he looked over the still in construction float one last time before heading out to the Pear Store. It annoyed him to no end that he would have to leave, but he was coming back after work with any last minute assistance and to bring along a change of clothes for Jade when he went with them.<p>

"Hey," a voice with a soft Southern accent called out from slightly behind and to the right of Freddie.

Freddie took a quick look to see that Dusty had walked up beside him looking over the float through his sunglasses with his hands stuck in his blue jeans pockets and wearing a navy blue T-shirt with the word Nike and the company's logo underneath the word across his chest. "Hey, what are you still doing hereon this gorgeous Friday afternoon?"

Dusty cocked his head to the side for a moment as he commented with a smile, "Had a few things I needed to wrap up with theSlap before heading home then I thought I'd stop by and see how the cupcake was going…" He paused as he watched a laughing Cat paint a spot on the cupcake. She glance over their way and appeared to see Dusty for a moment then held a hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle as apparently she thought of something funny.

He shook his head and smiled regretfully, "Back at my old high school in Carolina, they'd send her home for wearing shorts that short."

Freddie held back a smirk and resisted rolling his eyes as he asked, "Dusty? Did you really just come out here to see Cat?"

He turned his head slightly to glance at Freddie as he wrapped his arms around himself. "Actually, no… I'm not Shapiro… _little creep_—"

Freddie held back a grin as he realized that he should avoid bringing up Robbie and his standees of Cat in front of Dusty.

"—but I'm not going to pass the opportunity up when it presents itself…" He blew out a breath then continued, "Actually, I came out here to let you know that reviewed Jade's short-film."

Freddie snapped his head in an instant with a look of annoyance and concern as he looked to Dusty still keeping his attention on Cat.

The Southern teenager shrugged a shoulder and casually commented, "With your history with Papperman, I thought you should know."

"What did he say?" Freddie hissed out. He was already going through the options in his head of all the ways he could hurt the annoying little creature. He was now regretting even more so attempting to help him last September instead of finishing him off when he had the chance regardless of how much Carly wanted to show him mercy.

Dusty sounded surprised at his own news as he spoke, "He gave her film a stellar review and was ready to already call it the best film of the year on SplashFace."

Freddie blinked a few times then turned his head to look back to the cupcake.

The leaner teenager wasn't giving him a chance to process that development as he continued, "He may be an asshole and lost some viewers because of it, but his voice still carries some weight."

The former Seattleite whispered more to himself than in questioning Dusty, "Why am I suddenly feeling as if I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop?"

"From what I've seen of him while being a longtime fan of you and iCarly, you are. _You are waiting_," he replied ominously.

Freddie turned his head back to look back on Dusty with an annoyed expression.

"Papperman would have to be living under a rock not to know West's your girlfriend even without your name in the credits and you of all people have to know he's up to something if he's giving her such a glowing review. You should have stepped on the little prick when you had the chance, not try to help him… I wonder if West is going to be the one that will pay for your mercy."

Freddie frowned deeper as he wasn't sure what he was more annoyed about: finding out Nevel had reviewed Jade's short film, Dusty was pointing out the obvious to him about how Nevel operated (presumably knowing about the site hack years ago, getting control of iCarly for a while and mocking the trio from their own domain name, the attempt fraud with the car contest, but without knowing about Nevel's behind the scenes manipulation of Shelby before the Pay-Per-View fight) or rubbing in that his good hearted nature could actually hurt someone else, specifically Jade, in this instance.

Dusty cracked a smile. "That's the second time you've looked at me that way for pointing out the obvious…"

"Maybe I don't like the snipe at me trying to be a nice guy and trying to show kindness with Carly to him when he was down. You know, meet cruelty with kindness?"

The leaner teenager grinned as he countered, "Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you? The kindest thing you can do for a rabid dog is putting it down quickly; anything else is cruelty to the animal and anyone that it turns it sights on, especially if the sights are on the ones… the one you love… even JC would understand that."

Freddie turned his attention back to the float and blow out a slow breath through his nose.

The smile left Dusty's face then whispered solemnly, "If he tries anything, I'll have you back."

Freddie cracked the smallest of thankful smiles as he whispered, "I appreciate that… thanks for letting me know."

"What are fans for? See you later Freddie," Dusty bid farewell to the more muscular teenager as he gave a parting glance and smile towards the red velvet haired teenager still painting on the float and stifling a giggle.

Freddie slightly shook his head about the possibility of having to deal with Nevel, but he really didn't have the time at the moment to worry about him. He caught Cat's attention and waved goodbye before turning and heading to his car.

* * *

><p>Tori Vega: Our gigantic cupcake float is ALMOST FINISHED! FEELING: Frosted<p>

* * *

><p>Hollywood Arts Parking Lot<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Saturday, October 15, 2011<p>

The parking lot adjacent to the Asphalt Café was mostly dark in the very early morning hours with only the school's security lights and ambient light from various street lights and lights from buildings surrounding the school providing any kind of light as the teenagers and acting teacher surrounded the nearly completed float. The teenagers, except for Freddie, had changed into the Candy Jammie pajamas on Cat's insistence. Freddie had bit his tongue several times as he wanted to tell Jade that he found _her_ adorable in the pajamas, however she had appeared to be in an irritable mood since he came back about two hours ago.

Tori was on a ladder with paintbrush in hand making the finishing touches of pink paint of the overhanging 'frosting' with a dab of her paintbrush while André was standing under and behind the girl holding a paint can up. "And this cupcake is done," she finished with a sense of satisfaction as she dropped the paint brush into the paint can.

Cat raised her hands in the air and started hopping up and down shouting, "YEAH! Cupcake power!"

"Cat, Cat, Cat!" Jade started shouting with some irritation.

The redhead turned towards her taller friend.

Jade shouted, "Cat, you're killing me!"

Cat stopped then looked off in the distance with an even expression as Jade crossed her arms under her chest with a look of annoyance.

Tori ignored the exchange as she asked Robbie, "Time?"

Robbie brought up his Mark 1 PearPad then pressed a few buttons as Jade flicked her hair off of her shoulders and looked to the curly haired teenager. "One twenty A.M."

Tori blew out a breath and quickly spoke, "Okay we better get going now."

Jade pointed out with a confused expression, "We don't have to check in until seven."

Tori replied with a sigh and motioned towards the float, "This thing only goes four miles an hour and the parade is in Pasadena."

André looked to his watch then agreed, "If we leave now we're probably just make it."

Tori motioned for everyone to enter the cupcake. "Alright people, into the dessert!"

As the other started entering the float, André remained behind with Tori as she turned to hand the keys over to Sikowitz. "Here is the keys to the cupcake."

The acting teacher immediately raised his hands and said, "Oh, no, no, no, I can't drive that thing with you kids in it. I have a semi-suspended driver's license." He finished by looking off to his right and cupping his hands in front of himself.

Tori pulled the keys back and looked to him perplexed and asked, "Why did it get suspended?"

"Well…see I was driving through Vegas… with these people… that I met at the circus and I—"

Tori raised her right hand palmed up still holding the keys as she interrupted, "We'll let Beck drive."

Sikowitz gave a quick and accepting nod.

As Tori turned away to head for the back of the float, André asked curiously, "Circus people?"

"One woman had an extra finger on left hand—"

Tori turned and called out to the pair, "Let's not talk about it."

Beck took his seat in the driver's seat and quickly rubbed his hands together then parted them as he glanced forward. He asked curiously, "How do I see out of this thing?"

Robbie pushed off from resting against the twisting stairs' rail and leaned over next to Beck as he answered while pushing a button on the viewfinder, "You just look through the periscope, right here."

"This seems dangerous," Beck commented as he looked through the periscope.

"Oh, you big baby," Sikowitz called out as Robbie took a seat next to André. "Now lets get to that parade before the sun comes up," he finished with a clap of his hands.

Tori turned her attention to Sikowitz after taking a seat on the spiral staircase "She had six fingers on one hand?"

"Yep, she could swim like a torpedo," he remembered fondly.

"Okay, hang on everybody," Beck called out as he started the vehicle and the passengers complied with his instructions.

The float started after a few rumbles.

"Here we go," Beck called out as he put the vehicle into gear.

The float started rolling as Cat asked curiously, "Are we moving?"

"Can't this thing go any faster?" André complained.

"If we were being towed by something faster," Beck answered.

Freddie asked curiously, "And why aren't we being towed?"

Everyone ignored that thought as it was too late to have that as a possibility.

Tori started singing with the others joining a few moments later, "The wheels on the cupcake spin around, spin around, spin around, the wheels on the cupcake spin around… due dee due dee due."

* * *

><p>The vehicle had been traveling for about the last hour and a half when Cat asked, "What street are we on?"<p>

Beck answered with a worried voice, "Let's just say we're not on Sesame Street."

"I love Sesame Street … Sunny—"

"NO!" Jade shouted harshly.

The redhead immediately shut her mouth.

Freddie glanced over in concern to the dark brunette, but she pointedly ignored him. He didn't accept that as an answer as he reached over and gently slipped his right hand under her left arm and grasped her right hand fingers. She turned her sour attention to her boyfriend who answered with a warm smile. She rolled her eyes as she shook her head then leaned over to rest her head on his shoulder.

Tori glanced down at the large sack resting behind Beck's driver seat, "Hey, what's in that sack?"

The others indicated their ignorance with various negative sounds and shaking of their heads.

"I swear it just moved," Tori commented then kicked it.

"Oh!" Trina shouted as she lifted herself up while pushing the sack down just below her chest.

Everyone except for Freddie started shouting their annoyance at her being with them.

"Thanks for kicking me in the mouth," Trina shouted as she palmed each of her cheeks.

"Why are you in that sack?" Tori asked desperately.

"So I could perform in the parade," she replied heatedly.

The rest of the group minus Freddie started complaining loudly at her presence with Jade shouting with the mix of complaints, "No one likes you!"

Trina wore a look of shock from their reaction as she looked between them.

The next moment there was a hissing sound and the float listed to the left side.

Sikowitz turned his gaze towards the ceiling of the giant cupcake and asked with a mix of curiosity and fearfulness, "What was that?"

"I think we have a flat tire," Beck spoke up as he glanced over his left shoulder at the rest of the group.

"That's just fantastic," Sikowitz complained as he stood up and went to the back hatch of the float. He stepped out with Tori and Robbie trailing behind him.

Tori commented dryly, "Fun neighborhood."

Sikowitz assessed quickly with a quick look under the float, "Yep, we got a flat tire."

The light brunette took a quick peek herself under the float to see the flat tire the stood up to glance at Robbie as he asked curiously, "Do we have a spare?"

Tori ran her right hand over her hair to keep it out of her face as she answered with disappointment, "We don't even have a trunk."

"Hey here comes some guys, maybe they can help us," Robbie pointed out as several men started approached from the end of the street. "Hey fellows, could you give us a hand?"

"Maybe they can help us… back in the cupcake!" Tori shouted then ran back to the rear door with Robbie and Sikowitz on her heels.

* * *

><p>Cat asked curiously as she sat on the floor near the driver's seat and looked at Tori standing on a bench and out an opened porthole, "Do you see anything?"<p>

As Tori looked out the window, she answered with curiosity and finished with disgust, "I see a guy on the sidewalk petting a little dog… wait no, it is a giant rat and he's not petting eat, but eating it."

Cat sucked in a breath and brought her hands to her mouth.

"I'm going to shut this," Tori commented fearfully as she shut the porthole. "What time is it?"

Robbie answered, "Almost Three A.M."

"What time do we have to check in?"

"Seven A.M.," Sikowitz answered.

Robbie started tapping on his PearPad as he answered, "So we have to be there in… let me do it over again."

André shouted as he lost his patience with Robbie messing with his PearPad, "Four hours!"

"Four hours," Robbie meekly agreed.

As the guys were arguing, Tori had dialed a number on her phone and already speaking with someone, "Yeah, hi, we have a flat tire. Could you please send a tow truck? Great, thank you so much. We are on the corner of Spatz and 83rd. How long do you think it will take you—"

"He hung up," Tori complained with obvious disbelief in her voice.

"Man, nobody is going to drive into this neighborhood at night," Rex complained.

"Hey, Batman would," Robbie countered cheerfully and patted the puppet's shoulder.

Rex 'moved' from side to side as he shouted irately, "Do you have Batman's phone number?"

"No," Robbie admitted sadly.

"Then how are we going to call Batman?"

"We're not," the ventriloquist responded with a sad tone.

"I know we're not!"

Freddie whispered, "I wish I had Phoenix Jones' number… and he wasn't in Seattle right now."

Sikowitz stood up from his seat and calmly spoke, "Alright, I think there is a twenty-four hour Price-Co on Spatz. I'll jog up there, buy a tire and be back in thirty minutes."

André replied in a concerned manner, "Ah, are you sure you want to be running through this neighbor at three A.M.?"

"The only thing I'm afraid of is fear and the guy that installed my satellite dish. I know he wanted to hurt me."

Freddie palmed his forehead and let out a sigh. He looked up at them and offered, "Or Tori could just call her and Trina's dad and he can come get us."

Tori raised an eyebrow and the rest of them looked to him with uncertainty.

He snorted out then gave a patient laugh. "Did you forget your dad's a cop? He'll come with some of his cop buddies and they will bring a tow truck. The first towing company that refuses the cops will be the last time they're going to be called to clear an accident, so someone is going to come with him, but just make sure you're the one that calls him and not Trina."

Tori glanced over to Trina and nonverbally exchanged a message then Tori looked back to Freddie and spoke, "Or we could do that."

Sikowitz shook his head as he commented, "I'll be back with a spare before they get here." The acting teacher was out the back of the cupcake without waiting for another word.

André, Beck and Freddie thought the eccentric teacher was even more insane going out, but he was gone before they could say a word with only thing to do was André to secure the door closed.

Tori was already on her pear shaped phone as the acting teacher went out the back. "…our float has a flat tire and we're kind of stranded in a bad neighborhood—" She paused as she listened to the voice at the other. "Yeah, dad? We're on the corner of Spatz and 83rd," she answered then waited a few seconds. "Great, we're not going anywhere." She pressed the end call button on her phone then looked to the rest of them. "Dad's having a patrol car sent and he's on his way."

There was a collective sigh of relief from the teenagers with knowing that help was on the way.

Tori slipped her phone into her pocket then had a seat next to André. The lighter brunette gave a half smile as she commented with a bit of relieved humor, "Well, it's going to be a little while until they get here so…"

Robbie spoke up, "I know how we could pass the time. We could sing again? How about André sings 'Three Hundred Sixty Five Ways'?"

"No!" Freddie, Tori and André shouted at once.

Jade had remained seated beside Freddie on the left side rear of the cupcake as she blinked a few times in his direction with a confused expression.

The former Seattleite cleared his throat then answered her gaze, "It's a good song, but I don't care much for some of the subject matter."

Beck spoke up, "Care to elaborate? It seems like a pretty innocent song about unrequited love… something a lot of people can relate to."

Freddie turned his attention to Beck after a quick glance to André. The brown eyed teenager saw the guarded expression Jade put up as she looked to Beck, but Freddie ignored it and the possibility that Beck was taking a jab at him about Carly as he answered, "Well… partially yes at first, but the… 'singer' talks about how he knows it's wrong and feels guilty about wanting to try to pursue another guy's girl, but he'd do it anyway… three hundred sixty five ways to be exact. That's a type of guy I really wouldn't want to relate to."

Beck leaned back in the driver's seat and whistled then responded, "That's kind of a harsh on André." The Canadian born actor glanced to the songsmith, who looked increasingly apprehensively, and caught Tori's worried expression she was directing at André.

Freddie furled his brow as he responded, "Who is talking about André? I'm talking about the non-specific person talking about a girl he's fell for who is already in a relationship. Just because André writes a song and he sings it, does that mean it's really about him? Is every song he writes autobiographical? I mean is 'A Song to You' really his feelings about Tori after she inspired him to turn favorite foods into that?"

Beck narrowed his gaze as he switched it between André and Freddie and saw the instantly relieved expression on André's face. Also, he noticed a slight blush forming on Tori's cheeks. The actor realized that there was something a little more going on than what was being verbalized and from the quick look he caught from Jade, she apparently was realizing it with him.

Tori spoke up to end any more discussion on the song, "Okay, we won't sing the song, so does anyone else have any ideas?"

Freddie cocked his head slightly to the side as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I have a question more than a suggestion."

Tori asked curiously, "Okay?"

The tech-producer looked to Trina, now out of the sack and sitting on the bottom step of the spiral staircase, and asked, "Trina, I don't understand. If you wanted to be in the parade, why are you in the sack?"

Jade readily answered, "Because no one likes her and didn't want her to be a part of it."

Trina glared at the dark brunette, but she ignored the accusing stare.

Freddie rolled his eyes as he replied with a hint of sarcasm, "I can relate."

Jade slightly frowned as she returned her boyfriend's stare and challenged, "She's not you."

Freddie blew out a breath and shook her head. He turned his attention to the rest of them and lifted his hands. "I don't care. This is ridiculous about excluding her. If you are going to play it that way then she can have my spot."

Tori raised a curious eyebrow as she asked, "Your spot?"

Freddie nodded his head and replied in a firm voice, "Yes, my spot. André said he felt we could be in it and you readily agreed, so I was in it and she can have my place."

Some of them started to complain, but Freddie spoke up with a loud voice with an edge to it, "Hey!"

The group immediate quieted down and turned their full attention to an obviously annoyed Freddie. "I know what it's like to be excluded by my so called friends from activities… heck, I was kicked out of all my clubs at school because people suddenly didn't like me. So I'm speaking up for Trina. You don't want her in it then you're not voting her out, you are voting me out of it. Now I want to see a raise of hands on who doesn't want me to be in it. I'd like to point out to you Tori that she's your sister."

Everyone embarrassingly looked at one another and no one was willing to raise their hands.

Trina glanced around and suppressed smirk at knowing that there weren't going to be anymore complaints to her participation in the parade. However, she was curious about one of his statements. "Why were you kicked out of your clubs?"

"You know that internet celebrity Fred? I didn't find his videos as funny as everyone else apparently did, so I was kicked out of all the clubs among other things."

Cat spoke up with a giggle, "I love Fred; I think he's funny. He's got another movie coming out next week. I can't wait to see it."

Freddie clenched his mouth shut for a moment and rolled his eyes. He looked at the sitting redhead and spoke with a bit of sarcasm in his voice, "I hate to break it to you Cat, but Lucas is a janking gank. He played everyone to get the additional notoriety and his viewer ship up with a fake internet war with us and then rode on the back of Jennette McCurdy's popularity to get people to even watch his first movie and now doing the same thing with Daniella Monet."

Trina spoke up with a big smile and a hint of an approval in her voice, "I can believe that, Daniella is one gorgeous girl."

Beck gave him a disbelieving expression, "But you did a video with him and gave him a hug making friends with him live on iCarly."

Freddie frowned deeply as he answered with actor with clear irritation in his voice, "That's because Sam beat me so hard with a tennis racket that she broke it over me and nearly broke my arm to force me to say he was funny as a way to appease him into making videos again then she throw me head first out of a two story tree house. I didn't want to hug him and be all nice with him. He played us and Carly and Sam had no problem being used because Carly was grateful the show wasn't going to be in danger and it gave Sam an excuse to get off with a free beating. He admitted to us that had no intention of stopping the videos, but to get his popularity up by starting a war with us. He even had a blasted chart showing how the traffic had gone up on both our sites."

Jade had to clench her jaw tight at rehearing the tale as her blood started to boil about what the girls had gotten away with against them and how everyone at his school treated him. As much as Freddie and Beck had said that things may have thawed in Seattle, she held the opinion that Carly was still a long ways off of ever making up anything with him and everyone at the whole damn high school could go straight to Hell including Ava's sister. _God, I hate twins._

The longer haired teenager's brow furled as he was confused with the answer, "Why didn't you just expose him?"

Freddie's gaze on Beck narrowed and his mouth slightly hung open as if he didn't at first believed that Beck had even asked the question. He finally responded with a tone of speaking down to the actor, "What part of 'Sam broke a tennis racket over my head and nearly broke my arm' did you not understand? Everyone under the sun turned on me for thinking he wasn't as funny as everyone makes him out to be… I had one of my aunts yelled at me over the phone about how I caused him to stop making the video. No one backed me in the beginning even if they disagreed with me, who was going to back me afterwards?"

Freddie pointed towards Cat as the redhead was looking down at the floor of the float and occasionally sniffling. "Look at Cat, she doesn't even want to believe me and she's my friend. Who was going to believe me if I told what happened? Carly and Sam weren't going to back me and people would just think I was making it up."

"Why didn't you wash your hands of them then? Didn't that prove to you back then that they weren't your friends?"

Freddie rolled his eyes and stared at the ceiling for a split second before focusing back on Beck. He answered with a bit of disgust and regret in his voice, "I was a stupid fool still in love with Carly with thinking that there was still a little hope left for Sam after our previous talk that two weeks previous and I had nowhere else to go…"

Beck slightly frowned and whispered with a bit of annoyance that unintentionally slipped into his voice, "You did this time."

Freddie ignored the tone and passed a quick glance to Jade to give her a small smile. "I bowed once and it cost me my self respect and dignity… I wasn't going to do it again."

The rest of them started looking uncomfortable as they watched the pair apparently get into a staring contest.

However, that feeling didn't last long as the float started rocking back and forth and causing the teenagers to try to stay in their seats.

Tori was the first one up and looked over Beck's shoulder to take a look out of the periscope. She looked back to the rest of them and shouted, "It's those guys we saw outside and it looks like they brought back a few friends with them! I think one of them is wearing Sikowitz's pants!"

Robbie shouted fearfully as he grabbed his cheeks, "Hooligans!"

"They're right outside?" Cat shouted fearfully.

André slightly shook his head as he got on his feet and pressed his back against the exit. "Oh man, we're going to die wearing Candy Jammies."

Robbie threw out his hands and desperately asked, "What are we going to do?"

Freddie called out as he reached to pull open a zipper of his book bag then pull out a pair of Jade's scissors, that fortunately had a particularly sharp point, he had brought along (as of course she loved her scissors and needed a pair close by her), "I've been nearly dead before." The former Seattleite stood up from his seat and took a position in front of André and commanded, "Move."

André asked with a bit of shortness of breath as he stood aside for Freddie to be right in front of the door, "You have any ideas?"

Freddie glanced at the songsmith that took position right beside him and whispered low enough in the hopes that only André would hear him, "If you mean plan? No. If you mean goal? Yes."

The pajama wearing teenager dropped his voice just as low to ask, "What's that?"

Freddie clenched his fist tighter around the scissors' handle. He blew out a breath then answered in a cold tone, "Keep them from raping the girls anyway we can." The words, '_Aim for the throat, aim for the throat, aim for the throat_' started chanting in his mind to overcome the fencing training of aiming for center mass with his foil.

André blinked as he processed what Freddie had spoken. André's fear was swept away in an instant and replaced with a similar cold determination that Freddie was expressing with his stance and facial expression then turned to look at the door with Freddie.

The float started rocking more violently as an idea occurred to Jade, "The confetti canon!"

Beck turned and pointed a Jade for a moment as he shouted, "Yes." He was immediately up on one of the benches to reach the controls for the canon. "Cover your ears!" Beck shouted just before he pulled the red lever.

Everyone did as they were instructed as the longer haired teenager finished pulling the switch.

Confetti immediately blew out from various jets on the roof of the float and started blaring music.

The float stopped shaking and the teens dropped their hands from their ears.

Jade spoke in a relieved tone, "I think it worked."

The rest let out relieved breaths and started taking seats on the benches just as they heard the whoop-whoop of police sirens approaching the rear of the float.

* * *

><p>Several hours later and alternating quick naps among the teenagers, the float finally reached the check in station for the parade after an escort out of the neighborhood by Mister Vega and another patrol car after they that had found Sikowitz wondering around without his pants.<p>

Almost all the teenagers were on the roof of the float other than Trina, Jade and Freddie remaining in the float as Sikowitz was registering the float and speaking with his girlfriend somewhere outside.

Trina was eager to head up the stairs as the couple were standing close together and whispering to one another. As she was half way up, she called out over her shoulder, "Freddie?"

The couple looked away from one another and up to the limited talented teenager and Freddie asking, "Yeah Trina?"

She smiled warmly at him. "Thanks."

He returned with a small smile of his own and a slight nod of his head.

The older Vega sister grinned then quickly headed up the spiral staircase.

Jade shook her head then pulled away from Freddie to head up as well, but stopped when she heard Freddie call her name, "Jade?"

The pale actress turned around midway up the spiral staircase to look down at Freddie. She held on to the left railing and braced against the center pole with her right hand as she asked, "Yes?"

Freddie grinned as he looked up to her bluish/green eyes. "All those good luck performance clichés."

Jade smiled in return then leaned down and gently palmed his left cheek to place a gentle kiss on his lips. She pulled back a moment later and whispered as she met his dark brown eyes, "Thanks."

Freddie lifted his head a fraction of an inch to capture her lips for another brief kiss and savoring her taste then replied, "You're always welcome."

The dark brunette stood up then headed up the winding stairs to join the rest of them on the roof of the float.

Freddie slipped into the driver's seat and let out a breath. "Slow and steady Freddie, slow and steady…" he whispered as he put the float into gear then looked through the periscope. He lightly put pressure on the accelerator and the float slowly started rolling and joining the rest of the procession with the crowd's cheering reverberating through the float.

The cheers brought a smile to the tech-producer's face knowing that Jade was getting the attention he thought she deserved.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: I wanted to point out that in this chapter, Freddie is talking about the <em>fictionalized version<em> of Lucas Cruikshank as the actor portrayed Fred and a fictionalized version of himself in the television episode of iMeet Fred, which makes him two characters in the Schneiderverse.


	18. Chapter 18

Author's Note: Hey everyone. Sorry for the delay in the chapter, but I had to work on 'iDon't Want to Wake Up' this week. I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'd like to point out for this chapter there is a crude sexual humor warning. I'm serious, you're going to hate the character that uses it.

Also, I ran across the quote this weekend and feel that I should share it with everyone: "There is a technical, literary term for those who mistake the opinions and beliefs of characters in a novel for those of the author. The term is 'idiot.'" – S.M. Stirling

I think those are good words to remember when we read any form of fiction, because I know it will definitely applies to this story and in future chapters.

* * *

><p>Chapter 18<p>

Asphalt Café  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Tuesday, October 18, 2011<p>

Freddie smiled as he rested his cheek in his right palm with his elbow braced against the lunch table watching his girlfriend in a happy mood as she enjoyed her burrito wrap for lunch. She wouldn't openly admit it to anyone, but she had been quite happy since the parade despite the trouble they had to go through to make it to the performance. As silly as they may have looked and performed the playful song, the Hollywood Art students had won over the crowd and kept the cameras on them for longer than usual for a passing float.

Freddie hoped that all those so called casting directors and producers had really seen them as Sikowitz had used to lure them to perform for him in the first place.

As she was finishing her lunch, he commented with a charming smile and casually tone, "Halloween is coming up next weekend."

Jade looked up as she was closing up her tray to throw away and slightly frowned at her boyfriend.

His playful smile lit up his face. "I know, I know, you don't care for October and that's just an assumption that you love Halloween, but I thought we could do something different than you just chucking eggs at your neighbors this year."

She answered with a clipped tone, "You know they deserve to have eggs chucked at their houses."

Freddie rolled his eyes as a part of him did agree with that sentiment with how they behaved sometimes with just passing them and trying to exchange polite pleasantries. He blew out a patient breath through his nose as he focused his attention back on the dark brunette. "I was thinking that we could go to the costume Halloween dance the school was having next Saturday. What do you say?"

She looked up at the sky as she rolled her head back and squinted her eyes as she complained, "I'd have to dress up."

"Is that such a chore that you would turn down a date with me?"

Jade dropped her head back down, raised an eyebrow and let her mouth become a thin line as she looked at the brown eyed teenager.

Freddie's smile turned into a smirk. "You know it would be funnn…"

She straightened her posture as she focused her complete attention on to her handsome boyfriend. "Are you trying to sweet talk me into doing something?"

Freddie leaned over to be mere inches from her face and softly shook his head as he answered, "No, I'm just pointing out the obvious. We have plenty of time to think of costumes and get ready for the dance and…"

"And what?"

"I can't recall us ever sharing a dance and that is still something that I'd love to share one with you… I want to take my girlfriend out to a dance. Besides, the dance is on Saturday and Halloween is on that Monday; you can always chuck eggs at the neighbors."

Jade rolled her eyes as he was right on a number of points, but hated to admit it so easily… she just might him to sweet talk her a little more. She leaned over and kissed his right cheek then whispered in a tone that indicated a yes but her words indicated that he'd have to wait for her to officially say it, "I'll think about it."

He ran his tongue under his bottom lip as he smirked and shook his head. "I'll be looking forward to your answer."

Guidance Counselor's Office  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Thursday, October 20, 2011<p>

Freddie was laying across the worn couch as he had his feet propped up on the left end armrest. He decided for this session he would get comfortable as he realized nothing was really bothering him at the moment and didn't feel all that stressed about anything. Yesterday had went by just fine with Sikowitz still in a good mood from how the Parade Parade turned out and there was zero tension between him and André during their weekly guitar lesson. Trying to get Jade to say yes to go with him to the dance over the last two days with subtle hints wasn't even stressful, but actually turned into a sort of playful, flirting game that he suspected they were both enjoying.

Lane was comfortably seated in his wicker chair as he glanced at the teenager. "Our last two sessions have been kind of…" Lane motioned his right hand towards Freddie, "… busy."

Freddie caught the movement of Lane's hand with the corner of his right eye and snorted out a laugh, "That's one way to put it."

Lane cracked a smile as he asked, "I heard you were in the Parade Parade? Or at least involved with it?"

Freddie cracked a soft smile at seeing Lane wanted to approach the session in a cautious manner. He nodded his head to the counselor as he answered with a lighthearted tone, "Yes. I helped build the float and I drove it during the parade."

"So that's why I didn't see you in it?"

Freddie turned his head to look at the adult and raised a curious eyebrow, "You watched it?"

"Everyone at school was encouraged to watch it after we found out we were going to be represented in it. So you didn't get a chance to be in it?"

"Oh… I've been on TV before several times and I didn't want to risk the chance that people would focus on me instead of the others."

"That's pretty considerate of you?" he questioned cautious.

Freddie let out a chuckle as he answered, "Yeah, if it didn't sound like some backhanded way of saying that I think I'm that famous or something, but you'd be surprise. Those first few weeks at work I was bugged with people who wanted to know why I left iCarly or just to have a picture with me."

"So why help if you weren't going to be in it?"

Freddie rolled his eyes as he answered, "Because Jade was going to be in it and I wanted to help my friends. I wanted to help them get seen like Sikowitz pointed out to convince them to do it in the first place. I think it worked out well; they got to be on national television and Sikowitz probably got laid by his new girlfriend."

Lane blew out a breath and tilted his head to the side slightly as he slightly admonished the teenager, "Freddie? Is that really appropriate? People could say the same thing with you and Jade about you helping her. I don't think you would appreciate the comparison."

"People already trash me for dating Jade and call her a slut because I'm not dating Carly or Sam and I already don't appreciate it, but he promised her that he would get us to do it before even asking us and then trying to emotionally manipulate us to do it. I originally walked out of the classroom. It was almost like him saying 'Please for me?', so I'm not feeling all that generous in being courteous to him," Freddie finished with a soft growl of annoyance.

The guidance counselor raised a curious eyebrow. "I'm sorry Freddie; I don't understand the reference."

Freddie blew out a breath then looked back at the ceiling. "When we were young, Carly would use that phrase to get me to do stuff that I really didn't want to do, but did because I was in love with her."

Lane nodded his head along and asked in a dry tone seeing the obviousness of his question, "You didn't want to be manipulated into doing something you didn't want to do?"

"He pulled that before I had time to consider volunteering my time. I just know I didn't like his attempt to emotionally manipulate me, so I left."

Lane remained silent for a few seconds as he studied the teenager. He finally spoke up solemnly, "It does take bravery to say no Freddie and to keep saying no instead of falling back to old ways."

Freddie closed his eye and blew out a soft breath through is nose. He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling as he whispered softly, "I didn't get brave Lane… I just couldn't bow one more time… it would cost me too much of me and it isn't bravery for saying no. It's anger and tiredness… just tired of doing the same damn thing and getting the same result and angry that no one would listen. Bravery would have been me giving Sam a bloody nose when she first started hitting me and kept hitting her until she stopped or she killed me… which she has attempted to do twice, three if you want to count her stunt in my hotel room before Jade gave her a rude awakening about her behavior. Bravery would have been to stand up to all the teachers at Ridgeway when the first thought they could mistreat me without consequences. Bravery would have been to say no to Carly a long time ago when I was in love with her before they backed me into a corner where my only way out was to leave. Those acts would have been brave; I was just desperate to hold on to what I hadn't let them destroy over the years. "

"And what exactly was that?"

Freddie turned his head to look at Lane and cracked a weary smile then whispered, "My definition of love."

Lane raised an eyebrow and asked curiously, "Does being with Jade fit your definition of love?"

Freddie blinked then looked back up at the ceiling. He stared at a particular ceiling panel and whispered, "Yes."

Lane let out a relieved breath as from what he had seen over the last month, he thought Freddie appeared to have a pretty good definition of love. "Are you in love with Jade?"

Freddie cracked a genuine smile that Lane could only partially see from sitting in his wicker chair. "I'm getting there."

Lane ran a quick hand over his mouth then started cautiously, "Then there is something that I feel that I have to bring up even if you would prefer it to still remain mostly off limits."

The tech-producer's brow furled for a moment as he was curious and a bit worried with what Lane could possibly bring up to talk about. "What's that?"

"You and Jade have had sex before and now…"

"We aren't having… we are not currently making love."

Lane motioned his head in Freddie's direction and replied, "Granted, but you can understand my concerns other than just the emotional consequences. I know that you have probably covered this with either your mother or your old school's sex educ—"

Freddie started laughing, cutting off Lane's point.

The guidance counselor waited patiently

Freddie lifted his feet of the end of the couch and sat up to face the adult. The teenager caught his breath and smiled at Lane. "I understand the birds and the bees. We were both virgins at the time and neither of us had any STDs and that's not going to be a concern in the future if we decide to do that again."

Lane nodded along. "That may be the case, but there still is another consequence that would recommend that you and Jade take some precautions."

Freddie lifted his hands up to send a physical cue that he wanted to cut the conversation short before they went any further. "Okay, I'm only saying this to reassure you and you better not repeat it, but Mrs. West has had Jade on birth control since she hit puberty and with the effectiveness rate of what she is on, it is an act of God if I get her pregnant."

"Okay… that's reassuring to know. I wouldn't want you two to face any more difficulties. How does Mrs. West feel about the fact that you and Jade have had intercourse? Does she know?"

"Yes she found out… she… Mrs. West never really discussed her feelings on the matter with me. I know she and Jade have had some conversation about it, but I don't know the extent or details."

"I guess that was fortunate that Mrs. West had took those precautions with Jade so that you two… it only takes one time."

"Yes it is and you're right… would you believe me if I told you it had something to do with Carly's mom?"

"Carly's mom?"

Freddie cracked a grin. "Mrs. West doesn't talk about it much, because Mrs. Shay's deceased, but it turns out that she and Mrs. Shay knew each other in high school and was around when Spencer was born."

"I don't understand."

"I never really gave it much thought about the age difference between Spencer and Carly and how relatively young Colonel Shay is for being their father. Spencer is going to be thirty in just over three weeks and the Colonel and Mrs. West's ages are just months apart." Freddie shrugged a shoulder. "A little counting and you can figure out that the Shays had Spencer when they were teenagers."

"So they conceived Spencer then got married and she didn't want a repeat with—"

"NO!"

Lane leaned back and the chair rocked from his shift in wait as he was surprised by the loud answer.

Freddie raised a finger and explained, "Mrs. West made it quite clear that was not why the Shays got married. Spencer was conceived after they were married and born eleven months after they got married, but I guess she didn't want even the possibility that Jade could face their hardships of having a child that young."

Lane let out a soft laugh as he commented, "Small world?"

Freddie shrugged his shoulders and put on a smile. "Apparently so."

An easy silence fell between them for a few seconds until Lane spoke up, "There is one last thing I'd like to discuss before you head back to class."

"What would that be?"

"What about what I said just before you left last time?"

Freddie narrowed his eyes on the moonlighting dance chorographer and lowered his head slightly as he cautiously spoke, "That's a fantasy not worth discussing."

"Is it?" Lane challenged in a firm voice. "You never thought about what it would be like to have everything back… minus all the bad things?"

Freddie clenched his jaw tighter.

Lane blew out a breath. "It's a possibility that you have to face if… when you ever forgive them."

The former Seattleite gave Lane a cold stare as he answered in a voice that matched, "If I don't forgive them, I don't have to worry about that."

"Being who you are, is that really a realistic option? Can you indefinitely be resentful and unforgiving towards them… towards _Carly_?" he finished with a firm voice.

Freddie let out a slow breath as he looked down at the floor then back up to meet Lane's eyes and opened his mouth.

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Thursday, October 20, 2011

Jade wore a hint of a smile on her face as she was closing her locker. Verbally playing with Freddie was turning into real fun with his hints of going to the dance.

She had thought about several ideas for costumes… one particular one she was giving serious consideration in picking she thought would surprise not only Freddie, but everyone else because one other thing she hated was being predictable.

She secured her Gears-of-War bag on her right shoulder and was about to round the corner for the exit when she heard two random students that looked like sophomores or junior chatting between the short wall between the row of lockers and the school's entrance.

One student was tall and lean similar to Sinjin, but with hair that went down just passed his shoulders. He asked the other student, a shorter, but heavier set student that fit the bill of a stereotypical size linebacker for the school's football team, "Do you ever wonder what they talk about in those sessions? I mean it's got to be more than just him adjusting to be in them that long. What has it been? A month?"

"More like two," the other corrected.

The first one chuckled, "Yeah that sounds right. How many times does Freddie need to skip out on the beginning of Mister Allen's class?"

The shorter teen snorted out, "I don't know, but I wonder how Jade reacted when she found out Tori was in the last one with him. You know how green eyed she gets especially with Tori."

Jade's brow immediately furled and she put on a frown as she spied on them from around the corner.

The darker haired teenager snorted out, "Definitely, it's probably why Beck finally dumped her and finally hooked up with Tori. They were probably janking behind Jade's back since she got here anyway. That's probably why Jade rebounded with Freddie afterwards."

The shorter one laughed with a disturbing glint in his eyes, "Yeah, but I know Jade's hot and everything… I know I would _love_ to bend her over… or better yet on her knees and have some fun with her twins, but you know he had to be doing both Carly and Sam. Why give that up even for her?"

The taller teenager rolled his eyes at his friend's pervertedness, but refrained from commenting on it. "I don't know. Maybe he got bored and needed a little variety?"

The heavier one shrugged a shoulder. "Heck, maybe he's doing Tori now too and they were in there figuring out how not to let Jade find out?"

The taller one chuckled, "You're pretty twisted, but I bet you wouldn't say that to her face."

He whistled then retorted, "Of course not, I like having my balls." He noticed a few girls walk down the stairs and head in the opposite direction to head for the Black Box. They were dressed in their dance work out outfits. He nudged his taller friend in the side with an elbow and commented, "Come on, it's Thursday afternoon dance practice and I can get us on the catwalk in the Black Box without anyone noticing… I want to see Trina shake that ass of hers." He was already on his way before the taller teenager could reply, but was quick on his friend's heels.

The dark brunette was fuming as expected and was already working through ideas to make the pair sorry for a very long time. She turned and headed out the door, but tried to shake away the frown and murderous look in her eyes as she headed out the school as she didn't want Freddie to notice when she arrived at his car.

Freddie Benson's Room  
>West Residence<br>Thursday, October 20, 2011

Freddie sat on one end of the long desk and over a workspace with a camera, similar to his old workhorse camera, half torn apart with various parts and another lens strung along beside it as he was busy trying to modify it. He was occasionally glancing at one of the monitors (as he finally got around to setting up both of his large screen monitors) to look over at a technical diagram as he tried to assemble the camera in the manner he would hope yield him the desired results.

He was screwing down a screw when he heard the sweet voice behind him, "What are you working on?"

He glanced over his right and barely over his shoulder as he saw Jade leaning against and resting the side of her head on the door frame.

"Just something I was tinkering with off and on before I left Seattle. I was hoping to learn some things at NERD camp that would help me prefect it, but…"

She gave him a sad, but reassuring and supportive smile.

He shrugged a shoulder and picked up where he left off, "…anyway, I'm still trying to muddle through and figure it out on my own."

"What is it?"

"I'm trying to find away to film, transmit and view in three-D without the use of special TVs and monitors and glasses,"

Jade blinked and asked in disbelief, "Three-D without glasses or three-D TVs?"

"Yep," he answered confidently.

"Do you realize what that could mean if you can pull it off?"

Freddie smirked confidently at her, "That I would completely end the specialized three-D TV market and revolutionize the film industry and maybe make a whole lot of money off of it? Absolutely."

Jade blew out a breath and pushed off the door frame to start walking towards him. She thought about all the help he had given her over the last couple of weeks to support her ambitions of being an actress. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Freddie looked up at her and smiled. "Two things."

"What are they?"

He put down his tools and lifted his right pointer finger then his middle finger as he spoke, "One, tell me I can actually pull it off and two, film something with me to see if it can work."

She leaned forward and rotated him around to face her then wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and laid a soft kiss on his lips. The pair closed their respective eyes as they leaned into the other to prolong the kiss. Jade pulled back a few seconds later and opened her eyes to meet his eyes. They stared at one another for a few moments then she whispered, "You can do this."

"Thank you," he replied back just as softly.

She smiled in return then crawled up the chair to sit across his lap with her arms still around his neck. She whispered, "And I'll get to work on another screenplay so you have something to film."

The former Seattleite smiled then gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks."

The pair rested in each other's arms for a few minutes as they tuned out the rest of the world to take comfort in the other's presence. The dark brunette had her head resting on her left arm and his shoulder when she finally whispered, "Why was Tori in one of your meetings with Lane?"

Freddie blinked and turned his head to meet Jade's eyes. He was a little perplexed that she had asked him, but he answered her, "Yes."

"Why?"

Jade felt him shift under her with him shrugging a shoulder as he answered her, "We had a disagreement that we were having problems solving on our own."

She lifted her head off of her arm to look him in the eyes with an annoyed expression on her face. "So that was really it? You can get in a fight with Tori, but cover it up about something else, even if it's true, to placate me."

Freddie frowned as he retorted with a slightly raised voice, "I wasn't placating you. It was one of the things that were bothering me."

"Why were you in a fight with Tori?"

"I wasn't in a fight with Tori. I had a disagreement with her and a little annoyed with her for a little while."

Her irritation was slipping further in her voice, "You're dodging the question."

"I'm clarifying the situation," he answered dryly.

Jade blew out a breath that tickled his nose and she asked with even more growing annoyance, "Fine, what did you disagree with her about that would make her be annoying even to you?"

"It's not my secret to tell."

Jade frowned. "Not your secret to tell?"

"It wasn't really a disagreement that started between us, but about someone else."

"So you are going to keep secrets from me now?" she snapped back sarcastically.

Freddie took his right hand off of her thigh and pointed to himself. "Keeping secrets? So I have to betray one of my friend's trust for us to remain honest with one another or it counts as holding secrets from one another?"

Jade was about to speak, but Freddie interrupted her with a raised pointer finger from the hand he used to point to himself, "It was a rhetorical question. The answer is _no_ unless the other person's secret could hurt you. If I think it would hurt you, I would tell you, if not then I'm not telling you, because it isn't your business unless he or she wants to share it with you."

Freddie shook his head. "I am not going to argue that point with you. It isn't negotiable. I'll put it this way: would you tell me stuff that went on between you and Beck when you were still together that you didn't talk about anyone else?"

"No!"

"Why?"

"Because it would betray…" she trailed off and broke eye contact with him.

Freddie gave her an agreeing nod.

She blew out a breath and mumbled out, "I see your point."

"Thank you… and for the record, everything is good between me and Tori and the matter is settled."

Jade gave a slow roll of her eyes and nod of her head as she was actually glad to hear that bit of news. She knew the last thing he needed was more conflict with his friends.

"Now I have a question."

"Okay?" she answered with curiosity.

"How did you find out? Did Lane tell you?" he finished with an annoyed tone at thinking that Lane could have shared what they talked about with someone else.

The green and blue streaked hair teenager shook her head. "No, I overheard two guys talking, let's call them Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dumb for right now, before I left school to meet you out at your car. They said some… pretty vulgar things about you in regards to Carly, Sam and Tori… and some things about me. I think they're in Mister Allen's class with you and Tori."

"Vulgar how?"

Jade's expression started to turn into one of embarrassment. She whispered out "Sexually… as in what he would like to do with me."

Freddie's eyes narrowed and he put on a deep frown as he whispered out coldly, "What do they look like?"

"One's tall like Sinjin, but has long dark hair just past his shoulders and the other one was shorter and kind of heavy, but not portly."

Freddie nodded along as the gears were already turning in his head, "I think I know who you are talking about."

Jade gave him a quick peck on his lips. "Don't worry about it. Just put it out of you head; I'm going to make them sorry for a very long time next week."

Freddie almost felt sorry for the pair… almost. He attempted to take the dark brunette's advice by trying to calm his nerves with a deep breath. He was able to muster up a smile and ask, "Am I going to get an answer about the Halloween dance?"

Jade lifted a corner of her mouth at turning to a happier subject then got up from his lap to make her way to the door. She stopped at the threshold and looked over her shoulder and gave him a wicked grin. "I'll let you know."

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Friday, October 21, 2011

Jade and Freddie walked through the main entrance with a good twenty minutes to spare before their first class. The couple radiated happiness with them holding hands and Jade sipping a special coffee blend that Freddie had inadvertently got her hooked on during their trips to Jet Brew during the summer. She may have loved her coffee black with two sugars, but she wasn't going to turn Freddie down in treating her with one of these coffees this morning.

Their moment didn't last long as Dusty came running up to them and stopped just in front of the couple.

He took the briefest of moments to catch his breath then stated quickly, "Freddie, we need to talk right _now_."

"What is it—" he was interrupted as Dusty grabbed him by the left elbow and started dragging him down the hall with Freddie just letting go of Jade as to not drag her with him.

"Dusty?" Jade admonished as she was instantly filled with annoyance with the teenager interrupting the couple.

"I need to borrow him West," the Southern teenager shouted back without a hint of fear.

He nearly dragged Freddie with him all the way to the theSlap computer room. The door was already open as Dusty stopped the pair at the threshold to the room with a number of teenagers inside trying to get some last minute work in before school started, but where distracted by the presence of another person.

Dusty pointed to the center of the room and nearly growled out, "This is what I need to talk to you about."

"Hello Freddie," a younger teenager greeted the former Seattleite with a bright smile and friendly tone.

Freddie narrowed his eyes on the figure and frowned deeply as he whispered out with a disgusted tone, "Nevel."


	19. Chapter 19

Author's Note: Hello my dear readers. I hope everyone is doing alright. I'm sorry for the lateness of this chapter. I was originally going to have this up early Saturday morning, but as I was finishing editing it, my power went out and for about half of the story had not been saving properly. I've been spending most of the day rewriting the chapter on top of the fact that this is probably the largest update I have ever had for any of my stories as I'm nearing 11,000 words for this one chapter. However, I think it made for a better chapter with some rewrites. I hope you enjoy this chapter and feel free to review.

Also, because of the all the time I had to spend rewriting and due to the length. I'm going to skip next week's update and hopefully post the next one on Friday, April 6.

Well, on with the story. Oh, and language warning.

Special Guest Appearance by Jennifer Connelly as Ruby Lynn West

* * *

><p>Chapter 19<p>

Dusty motioned a hand towards the web-reviewer and spoke with a mix of sarcasm and irritation, "And the other shoe has dropped."

Freddie gave a passing glance to the slightly taller teenager indicating he didn't like the 'I told you so' then turned his attention back to Nevel as he asked Dusty with annoyance filling his voice, "What is he doing here?"

Nevel continued to wear a grin as he began to answer, "I'm here to—"

"I didn't ask you," the tech-producer snapped with a harsh tone and threatening glint in his eyes.

Nevel shut his mouth tight and eyes nearly bulged out at hearing the harshness in Freddie's voice. He never felt any real fear from Freddie and most of the time looked down at him as an inferior web-manager. Apparently that was going to be an opinion he was going to have to reevaluate.

Dusty looked onto Nevel as if he was something he had unfortunately stepped in and had to take the trouble of scrapping off the bottom of his shoe. "He showed up a few minutes ago wanting to see if I could arrange for him to interview West as part of some more in-depth review of her film. I wanted to tell him to go pound sand, but then I realized it's not really my decision to make."

Freddie clenched his jaw tightly as he stared at his minor nemesis. "Wasted trip Nevel, go home."

Nevel frowned and straightened his posture as he wasn't going to be brushed aside by Freddie. "Are you in the habit of making decisions for your girlfriend? She is your girlfriend right?"

Nevel blinked for a moment when he thought he had actually heard Freddie growl then face dropped in shock as the next thing he knew Freddie had crossed half the room and grabbed him by the collar of his sweater to shove him against the edge of a table, not caring if he knocked over one of the transparent monitors. The taller teenager stared down with a cold glint in his eyes at the sandy blonde haired teenager. The brown eyed teenager growled out, "You are not setting your sights on her so you can torment her. I know you really didn't change; you're still the same miserable little boy you have always been since we met you. You will not use her in some stupid little game you have cooked up in your head and if you try I will put you down like we should have when you showed up on the Shays' doorstep that night."

The others inside the room turned their full attention from their computers and some got up from their seats to see the scene unfolding. One or two guys of theSlap staff cautiously approached if they needed to separate the pair, but Dusty with crossed arms over his chest and an even expression on his face snorted out a breath and motioned his head away for them to stop. They surprisingly complied as they let the Seattleites take care of their own business.

The action didn't go unnoticed by Nevel as he realized no one would come to his aid if Freddie decided to attempt to hurt him. He started chuckling nervously as he right hand palmed over Freddie's left balled up fist that clenched the collar of his sweater in some subtle and vain attempt to loosen the taller teenager's grip. Nevel attempted to reply with as innocent as possible voice, "I really just want to interview her for my site. Her film's becoming really popular and I thought I'd try to get an exclusive."

"Don't give me that bullchizz Nevel. You are always up to something, so what is it? And you better not lie to me."

Nevel remained quiet for a few seconds, which if the look on Freddie's face indicated, he didn't have much wiggle room in what he could leave out in the truth with Freddie.

Dusty spoke up in the middle of the stalemate, "Why don't we give them some privacy?"

The rest of theSlap staff glanced to one another to try to assess what their fellow students were thinking about the unfolding scene. After a few glances of conveyed confusion and apprehension, they all apparently realized that they may not want to get in the way of Freddie as they had heard (and saw online by happenstance) of what he had done to Steven Carson and the rumors of the near fight in the music room between him and Beck, so they started to file out passed Dusty standing by the door.

Once the last student had walked out of the room, Dusty shut the door behind them and leaned up against the entrance with his arms remained crossed.

Freddie passed him a curious glance over his shoulder as to why he was staying.

Dusty cracked a self-assured grin. "You think I'm missing this? Besides, you need a witness to say he swung first."

Freddie snorted out as at the moment he didn't care if he watched. The former Seattleite turned his full attention back to Nevel. "Start talking and it better be the truth," Freddie instructed with an added emphasis of a colder look if that was possible directed at him.

"Okay, okay," he nearly shouted with his hands raised. "I wanted to interview her because her video is so popular and if I could get an exclusive then maybe I could get my traffic back up and get my popularity back, especially after she was on TV Saturday in the Parade Parade."

Freddie shoved him hard against the table nearly causing the younger teenager flip over it as Freddie took a step back. He stared at the shorter teenager in disgust as he righted himself to sit on the edge of the table. Freddie spoke with a cold tone, "So your site never really recovered from lashing out at the wheelchair bound man?"

Nevel frowned with annoyance at Freddie bringing that point up. "No it didn't. People thought that I really didn't change and what happened on iCarly was just a staged act."

Dusty snorted out a laugh and shook his head. "Well people do get a little offended for a stuck up upper-middle class white boy berating a wheelchair bound black man."

Nevel looked past Freddie to eye the Southern teenager with a frown.

"Keep staring…" Dusty warned in a tone that suggested he had little patience for the younger teenager.

Freddie spoke up catching Nevel's attention, "I already helped you against my better judgment and you screwed that up in less than a day, proving what a miserable little boy you really are. Why should I let your tainted reputation anywhere near Jade?"

It was a sticky question for the web-reviewer, but he had a surprisingly straightforward answer, "Because you don't have anyone else that will stand up to your nutty former fans that are racking her over the coals."

Freddie took a step back and let his barely contain angered expression be replaced with an impassive expression.

Nevel leapt at his opportunity as he found the chink in Freddie's armor. "There are plenty of them that hate her and doing everything they can on-line to tear her down. They blame her for you leaving iCarly and not getting with Sam after she said she liked you on your last show. They think that she turned you against them. I still have a large enough of an audience to drown out the nuts."

Freddie glanced down at the floor as he thought on Nevel's point.

Nevel continued as he tried to hold back a smirk, "Have you read what they have called her?

Freddie snorted out in disgust, "I am quite well aware of what they are saying about her."

"And who is standing up for her? A few random fans on the Creddie boards? The rest are silent. Has Carly or Sam posted anything asking them to stop? One minute during a broadcast? A message on their blogs? A tweet? Even you haven't said anything to defend her."

The brown eyed teenager clinched his jaw tight as Nevel slapped him in the face with the truth or at least the partial truth. "There are plenty of people that post their support for her video on SplashFace and follow her on theSlap."

"But are silent everywhere else."

Nevel sat up and straightened his sweater and collar. He cleared his throat and calmly suggested, "Let's help each other. This isn't you offering to help me out of the goodness of your heart like last time, but you get something out of it: swaying the rest of the on-line community to see them for the nuts they really are and giving her even more of a spotlight, while I get my larger audience back."

Freddie remained silent for a moment as he thought on the proposal.

Dusty spoke up with a firm voice as he pushed off the door, "Sounds like a Faustian deal to me."

Freddie turned slightly and looked over his right shoulder at the other teenager with a guarded expression.

Nevel bit his tongue as he glared at Dusty. He didn't like the comparison to him being Mephistopheles in this situation.

The brown eyed teenager focused back onto Nevel and looked to be assessing his nemesis and the situation if the conflict showing in Freddie's eyes was any indication. The room remained silent as Dusty and Nevel waited for Freddie speak. He finally broke the silent with a resigned tone, "It may be a Faustian deal, but it's really not my decision to make… I'll talk to Jade about it."

Dusty frowned and slightly shook his head while Nevel's eyes lit up and put on a grin in triumph.

Freddie looked back to Nevel and took a step forward to invade his personal space and stare him straight in the eyes.

Nevel lost his grin from the resumed staring of the taller teenager.

Freddie whispered, "You should remember one thing."

The web-critic tried to push down his renewed apprehension as he asked, "What's that?"

"You fear Sam, but Sam fears her."

Nevel swallowed down the fear threatening to rise from his stomach as the tech-producer eyed him one last time then turned and headed out the door ignoring the disapproving look Dusty was giving him.

Nevel laughed out his tension then put on a smug smile as he looked to Dusty.

Dusty turned his head from looking out the door and back to the visitor with an annoyed stare. He whispered out with a strange mix of pity and disgust, "You dumb _little fuck_; you really have no idea what you just walked into?"

The Seattleite frowned and his brow furled in reaction to the Los Angelino.

Dusty blew out a breath and shook his head. "I don't know all that went on up in Seattle with him and with you other than what I saw on the show, but I know two things. One, that is not the same Freddie that I watched for years on the show and second, you hurt West and _no one_ here will protect you from him and I don't doubt for a second that he wouldn't chase your ass down to Seattle. Hell, I know a few that will hold you down as he pounds you into the ground."

Nevel looked queasy in the face at hearing that bit of news.

Dusty snorted out with a grin. "Now get the Hell out of my room before I toss you out on that melon shaped head of yours."

Asphalt Café  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Friday, October 21, 2011

Tori popped a fry in her mouth and after a few chews, asked, "Why does that name sound familiar?"

The rest of the group of friends was sitting around their usual blue table having their last lunch of the week after Freddie explained to Jade and the rest about Nevel showing up and what he wanted.

Freddie was about to answer and ready to rehash the history between him and the minor nemesis, Beck spoke up to answer, "Remember? He's that internet critic that used to be really popular a few years ago that had a rivalry with…" Beck motioned to Freddie to his left past Jade, "…iCarly over the last couple of years, but last year Nevel yelled at some little girl in grocery store and his popularity went down the drain. He turned to them to help him try to get his image back and finally did it when they brought in the little girl for him to apologize."

"Oh, it's that guy?" Tori asked with a raised voice and a snap of her fingers. "I remember that; I almost cried at their reunion."

Rex laughed as he commented as he sat on the table between Robbie and Cat, "Then he yells at the guy in the wheelchair the next day; all that hard work then it comes crashing down on his head. That was hysterical."

Beck asked with a cautious voice, "And he really just wants an interview with Jade?"

Jade passed Beck a slightly annoyed expression. "You're surprised?"

Beck narrowed his gaze on his ex, but gave her a familiar patient smile that he would give her when they would get into disagreements when they were still together. "I just think there's something more to it… as in the fact that you're Freddie's girlfriend and they have a history."

Freddie blew out a tired breath through his nose as he poked at his food. He looked up from the half eaten meal and spoke up, "I was thinking the same thing. He may have framed it as you both benefiting, but I can't ignore our history and that he could be up to something, especially after he showed that he was still the same mean, petty guy he has always been."

Beck took a sip from his drink then commented, "That's why I think you shouldn't do it." The actor then looked to the tech-producer with expected support.

Freddie returned with a look of timid agreement which surprised Beck and let it show with wide eyes.

The dark brunette frowned then glanced to Freddie. "What do you think?"

The former Seattleite looked to her for a few seconds and mulling over exactly what he wanted to say. He finally with less than fully confident voice, "I think… I think it's your decision to make and I'll back you either way."

Jade gave him a smile as she knew he was going to say that, but she couldn't leave that as an answer. She asked with a soft tone, "I know that, but what do you think I should really do?"

The rest of the table looked to Freddie and he looked caught for the moment, but finally relented with an answer as if it was draining to even speak, "A big part of me agrees with Beck, but… the rest thinks that you should do it."

Beck popped up with the obvious question, "Why? Why him? Can't she do an interview with someone else if she wants to do one?"

Freddie glanced around the rest of the table to catch the eyes of the rest of the students and held it a bit longer with Beck as he answered, "I think that is something just between me and Jade to talk about."

The dark brunette slightly frowned as she narrowed her eyes on her boyfriend out of concern.

The taller actor retorted confidently, "That proves my point Freddie. If you can't even openly talk about why you think she should do it, but say why she shouldn't, doesn't that tell you something?"

The immigrant Los Angelino met Beck's eyes and the pair stared at one another for a few seconds with the rest of the table remained awkwardly silent. Freddie took a deep breath then answered solemnly, "It tells me that you're right, but it is still her decision and not my place to talk her into or out of doing the interview."

Beck looked down at his food feeling that even when won the argument, he didn't feel like he won. He caught from the corner of his eye that Jade was looking towards Freddie with even more concern.

The rest of the lunch period conversation turned to trivial stuff and about what the various plans were for the weekend for the teenagers while Freddie and Beck remained silent.

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>~11:30 P.M., Friday, October 21, 2011

Freddie sat at the kitchen table as he ate on his near midnight snack of a sandwich after getting in from work with Jade and Mrs. West sitting cattycorner to him on his left and right, respectfully. The two ladies had already changed to sleeping wear, but Freddie hadn't taken the time to change, as he had decided to head straight for the kitchen to prepare something to eat. As he ate, the three were catching up on their respective days.

After lunch, the day went by pleasantly for the teenagers while Mrs. West was on the verge of closing a major deal with the advertising firm where she was employed as a VP.

Freddie didn't mention it during the ongoing conversation, but while in Mister Allen's class, Freddie was able to at least get in a few glares at Victor and Corey, especially Corey as he was the one that made unspecified vulgar remarks about Jade that his girlfriend would not go into detail about. A good part of him wanted to confront the teenagers (as in clean their clocks with his fists), but the other part demanded that he respect Jade's wishes of handling the teenagers on her own terms. He still almost felt sorry for the pair… almost.

As the conversation started to wind down, the obvious topic of the day was brought up: Nevel's request of getting an interview with Jade. Freddie quickly explained the history he had with Nevel to Mrs. West that included his last run in with his minor nemesis in trying to salvage his reputation after the incident with the little girl and him trying to do the same once again with an exclusive with someone who was quickly becoming popular on-line.

Mrs. West frowned as she looked at her daughter's boyfriend as she wore an expression as if she doubted his word on the last run-in with Nevel. "A 'Karma' Party? To celebrate his misfortune?"

"Yep," Freddie answered after he finished chewing one of the last pieces of his sandwich.

Ruby leaned forward and rested her elbows on the kitchen table and palmed her forehead. She whispered out in disbelief, "Oh my God, Taylor must be rolling over in her grave for Carly doing that."

Freddie blinked and wore an expression that he didn't understand what she meant.

She blew out a patient breath and answered, "Taylor would be horrified that her daughter would do such a thing, for her to actually enjoy and celebrate the pain of another human being? If Steven finds out… and that Spencer let her have it…" Ruby shook her head. "I don't want to think about it."

Jade's expression crumpled into one of disgust. "Why are you surprised? Carly had no problem with watching Freddie's suffering for years."

Mrs. West turned her attention to her daughter and looked her right in the eyes and responded with a stern voice, "Because I still have a hard time reconciling the fact that the daughter of Taylor and Steven would do such a thing." Ruby closed her eyes and blew out a soft breath through her nose as she shook her head. She whispered out softly, "If Taylor was here…"

Jade's annoyed expression dropped instantly as she saw her mother's reaction and thinking back on her late friend. Before Jade could attempt to offer any words of comfort, Ruby looked up and wiped under her right eye as she met her daughter's eyes to ask, "So are you going to do the interview?"

The dark brunette took a breath then looked to her boyfriend that was taking a quick sip of his sweet tea to wash down his meal. "Why do you think I should do it?"

Freddie sat his glass down next to the empty plate and stared at the blue circular eating surface. He blew out a soft breath through his lips then asked, "I take it you mean 'Why does a part of me think you should let Nevel be the one?'"

She softly nodded her head as she whispered, "Yeah."

Freddie continued to stare at the plate as he couldn't meet her eyes. As he answered with sad tone, there was a dark undertone of anger as he expressed the words, "Nevel is the only one that I know will really fight back. I'm tired of them treating you like chizz on-line. I'm tired of their damn comments and I'm damn tired of those backstabbing so-called fans and if you can use Nevel to show the world how great you are and rubbed in their faces then I'll be ecstatic…"

A small smile played on her lips as she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She answered with a light hearted tone as she thought they were beneath her and didn't even deserve the consideration of her speaking, "Those janking ganks don't bother me—"

Freddie looked up to meet her crisp blue eyes in the half lit kitchen and snapped, "They bother me!"

Jade frowned and looked to him with worry in her eyes as she assessed her boyfriend's expression of anger and hurt.

He blew out another soft breath and whispered in a tired voice, "It bothers me. I don't want them to ruin your reputation or future chances of being an actress because of me."

Jade wrapped an arm around Freddie's shoulders and the other across his chest to lock her hands together to rest on his right shoulder and to rest her forehead against his temple.

The tech-producer responded by closing his eyes and latching on with his left hand onto her arm across his chest.

Ruby spoke up with a comforting whisper that caught the attention of the teenagers to look at her with curious expressions, "This is what I hate about the internet. Bullying and gossip was bad enough when I was in high school, but now you can bully people and stay hidden. You at least had the chance to really fight back or find out who started the trash talk… then you could make them bleed… Steven made a few bleed." The raven haired beauty actually broke into a slight grin as she recalled, "He even knocked out Evan's front teeth."

Freddie nodded in agreement as Jade turned her head to look at her brown eyed boy. The couple looked to one another as Freddie drew some moral strength from Jade's comforting expression as she debated what to do in her head. After a few more moments, she whispered, "I think I'll do it… get a little more exposure and…" She looked to Freddie with a smile. "…hit some of them back."

He looked back hesitantly as he asked, "Are you sure?"

She gave him a reassuring smile. "Yeah, I'm sure. Besides, I can always undercut him with doing another interview and posting it."

Freddie was able to give her a small smile in return as he nodded in agreement. An idea started to form as he continued to look at his supportive girlfriend then whispered, "Okay, but I think you should do it on our terms and not his."

"You have something in mind?"

"A half formed idea, but I need to check with some a few people. You feel like doing it tomorrow?"

"You'll be at work tomorrow," she stated with a mixture of confusion and disappointment.

Freddie grinned as he answered, "I know, that's why I need to talk some people."

Jade raised an eyebrow as she was curious as to what he had in mind.

Mrs. West on the other hand looked to both the teenagers with a concerned expression.

theSlap Computer Lab  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>~1 P.M., Saturday, October 22, 2011<p>

Sinjin was excited as he was double checking the camera (as in the camera Freddie used to film iCarly) sitting on top of the tripod to film Nevel's interview with Jade as Dusty was finishing up arranging the makeshift interview set at the end of the computer lab. The Southern teenager had set up a chair at either side of the flat screen television with a small table sitting between the chairs along with two additional cameras on the far side to the left and right of Sinjin's position to focus on the individuals to allow for visual editing.

"Van Cleef, you set?" Dusty called out as he adjusted one of the chairs.

Sinjin looked up from the camera and answered, "All set."

Dusty turned and headed to walk around the table sitting just behind and to the left of Sinjin. He asked the curly haired teenager as stepped around and looked down at his laptop set to record the interview, "So how did Benson get you out here on a Saturday afternoon?"

Sinjin shrugged a shoulder as he casually asked, "I'm his friend and he needed my help, so I'm here. Why did you come out here on a Saturday? I didn't realize you were friends."

Dusty blew out a breath and rolled his eyes with a humorous expression, but kept his focus on the laptop to casually press a few buttons, "We're not, I'm his fan, not his friend, but he guessed that one Southern stereotype was correct about me, so I'm here."

The taller teenager's brow furled under his pair of glasses and asked with a curious tone, "Which one is that?"

Dusty cracked a knowing smile. "I'll let you figure it out."

Sinjin didn't get a chance to guess as the pair heard the sound of heels down the hallway approaching the doorway and they turned to see who would enter. Jade stopped just outside of the open doorway to the computer lab and the teenagers remained silent for a few moments as each assessed in their own way Jade's appearance.

The dark brunette wore a dark red, almost burgundy colored top that zipped up to just above her cleavage with slightly puffy and pleated shoulders. She wore a loose black skirt that reached down just past her mid-thigh with pair of black heels that accentuated her legs. Her hair was pulled back behind her ears and instead of her usual blue or green colored streaks (or combination of both) the streaks were of a dark red that matched her dark red shirt.

Dusty smiled and gave a slight, respectful nod of his head and whispered almost reverently, "You look very lovely West."

Jade looked down at her appearance then cracked a smile as she looked up at Cat's ex. "Thanks Dusty."

Sinjin was grinning like a fool and began his own compliment, "Yeah, you look really h—" Dusty maintained a smile and his focus on Jade's eyes as he gave a good nudged with his elbow into Sinjin's ribs. "Owe…" the taller teenager complained as he rubbed his side looking at Dusty who was pointedly ignoring him then looked back to Jade with a crooked smile as he finished, "…lovely. You look very lovely."

Jade blew out a breath and slightly rolled her eyes at Sinjin's attempt at a compliment.

Dusty shook his head. "How you hold on to Ava…" He didn't wait for a reply as he approached the actress and stopped just in front of her to offer her his left arm. He gave her a respectful smile as he asked, "If I may escort you to your seat?"

Jade tilted her head down slightly in an attempt to hide her embarrassed smile. She graciously accepted his offer by looping her right arm with his arm and resting her left hand on his forearm. Dusty led her past the small table and between the center and left camera to arrive at the left seat.

Just as Dusty was turning to head back to the seat behind the laptop, Nevel walked in with a big grin plastered on his face. "Hello everyone."

The webmaster of theSlap quickly crossed the room and stopped the younger teenager just as he was entering the room. Dusty looked coldly at the instantly confused teenager by being stopped from going further into the room. Dusty instructed him with an even expression, "Take your jacket and sweater off, unbutton your shirt and turn out your pockets."

"What?" Nevel asked thoroughly confused at what he had been asked to do.

Dusty answered with very little patience in his voice, "You heard me."

"Why?"

Dusty wanted to smirk a little bit, but maintained his even expression as he answered, "You agreed to Benson's terms? West has exclusivity to the interview and you'll get a copy of the final product. I'm checking to see if you're wearing a wire or anything else to record us. We are not going to let you pull some sleight-of-hand nonsense on us. So, either do as I ask or I'm going to toss you out on your melon shaped head and enjoy the sound of the agreeable thump it will make when you hit the ground. Oh, and hand over your cell phone."

Nevel clenched his jaw tightly as he stared at the other teenager that wasn't intimidated in the least by the petty boy.

The webmaster grinned and sarcastically commented, "I'm quite comfortable in my heterosexuality, how about you? Now take the jacket and sweater off and unbutton your shirt."

After a few moments, Nevel finally complied by reaching into his pocket and handing over the phone. Dusty took a quick look at it to confirm it was off then slipped the flip phone quickly into his back jean pocket. Nevel quickly pulled off his blazer to drape over the back of neighboring chair followed by pulling his sweater over his head and laying it over the backrest of the chair. He started unbuttoning his shirt to the waist to reveal a white undershirt that clung to his chest and stomach.

"No wire, satisfied?" he asked with a disgust filled voice.

"Yes," the taller teenage replied without a second thought.

Nevel grumbled something under his breath then started buttoning up his shirt.

Dusty rolled his eyes and replied with disgust in his voice, "Yeah, yeah, I'm going to rue the day I crossed you and all that shit, but you can still kiss my ass." The Hollywood Arts student turned his back to the web-critic and headed for the table. Dusty pulled out the phone and sat it down next to the laptop as he looked over the screen one more time to make sure that they could control all the cameras and everything was set to record.

Nevel continued to mumble for a few more seconds as he finished buttoning up his shirt. He pulled his sweater back over his head then pulled his jacket back onto his shoulders. As he tired to straighten his hair with his finger tips, he walked around the table to approach Jade. As he passed Dusty, the Los Angelino whispered to the shorter teenager, "Behave yourself."

Nevel clenched his teeth tightly for a moment, but once he reached the dark brunette, he plastered on a smile and greeted, "Hello Jade—"

"That's Miss West to you," Dusty corrected as he looked up from his laptop. "You need to learn some respect _boy_."

Nevel frowned as he turned to look at the leaner teenager while Jade put on a curious expression as she had been surprised about the entire exchange Cat's ex had with the younger teenager.

Dusty stared back hard meeting Nevel's challenging stare.

The web-critic realized he wasn't going to win and really didn't feel that it was a point to argue over anyway, turned back to look at Jade and start again, "Miss West."

Jade cautiously greeted the younger teenager, but with a friendly tone, "Hello."

Nevel took his seat and looked to the lovely actress. "Thank you for this interview."

She gave the slightest of nods with her head. She answered with a bit of caution, but wouldn't show a bit of weakness in front of who she concluded was nothing but a little weasel. "You're welcome. Freddie does appreciate your talents and he thought that we could mutually benefit from a collaboration."

"I'll have to remember to thank him."

She smiled to him in an almost predatory manner as she agreed, "Yes, you do need to thank him."

Nevel's smile faltered for a faction of a second, but was ironically saved from having to respond with Dusty calling out from sitting behind the laptop and casually typing, "Whenever you're ready West."

Jade glanced to Dusty then back to Nevel. "Ready?"

He smiled boyishly at her signaling he was ready to start whenever she was ready.

"Ready!" she called out.

Sinjin looked through the eyepiece and adjusted the frame to capture the two teenagers. He started calling out, "In five, four, three, two…" Sinjin motioned with his pointer finger at Nevel.

The experienced web-host didn't miss a beat as he started, "Hello my dear viewers. I have a special treat for you, an exclusive interview with the star, writer and director of the hit short film that has caught fire on SplashFace and around the internet, _'Fairest of Them All'_, Miss Jade West."

Nevel turned his attention away from his camera and smiled at the dark brunette with red streaks in her hair.

"Thank you Nevel, it's a pleasure," she replied with a surprisingly warm voice and rested her hands in her lap for the moment.

The younger teenager spoke with a friendly smile and courteous tone, "Usually of course this would be the part where I would ask you a few biographical questions for the audience to get a sense of who you are, but I don't want to draw viewers away from your various videos on your Slap and SplashFace pages and I'm sure that the viewers are just as eager as I to talk about your film as I think that's where we actually get to learn the most about you."

The dark brunette slightly shook her head and continued smiling brightly as she answered, "No, I don't mind at all. You always give a piece of yourself in any role you assume to perform."

Nevel maintained his smile as he continued, "Before we delve into your film, it might help to look back a bit? This isn't your first production that you've written and directed, but is the most widely seen piece you've created."

Jade gave a slight nod of her head. "You're correct. My first well-known production in writing and producing was a play, _'Well Wishes'_, performed several times at a local theater and quite successful. My friend Cat Valentine performed in the star role of the play and did a fantastic job. I also performed a scene for a readmission submission for my high school, Hollywood Arts that I decided to post on-line."

"Most of us didn't have the fortune to see that play, but we have the fortune to see this film and the resubmission film. It goes without saying that this film has certainly gathered a following in the last several weeks and you have gathered one yourself."

The dark brunette nodded along as her smile brightened. "Yes, there has been a spike in viewer ship to my Slap page since posting the film through our school's new SplashFace site. I know that a number of other students are now interesting to create their own films and have them hosted to show off their talent and what the school has done to foster it. I'm glad I started a trend for other students to get the recognition they deserve."

"If I may? For those viewers that are seeing you for the first time or those who haven't had the chance to see your film, I would like to show a small scene from your film. Would you mind introducing the scene?"

Jade smiled brightly as she shifted her weight slightly to the left armrest with her arm resting on the padded material and crossed her right leg over her left leg. "Not at all. This scene is about my character rallying her army of miners and others of the realm to take the throne after being exiled by the Queen, played by the very talented Ava Cohen."

Sinjin instinctively wanted to clap at the mentioning of his girlfriend but Dusty reached up with his right hand and grabbed Sinjin's left forearm to prevent him from clapping without taking eye contact off of the two teenagers on set.

Dusty tapped a key on the keyboard of the laptop and the scene started playing on the television.

_Preschoolers from the neighboring preschool were dressed up to be the familiar dwarves of the story along with freshmen and sophomores dressed as various peasants and a few knights sprinkled among the crowd. Jade dressed up in her dark renaissance Snow White costume was standing on a platform looking over the gathered characters. She looked to the children first as she began her rallying cry, "You have been condemned to this perpetual Hades of mining so you can support the ones at the top, the ones that don't care if you live or die in the mines. You are the ones that give them their wealth, but you are the ones that do the backbreaking labor with nothing to show for it but empty stomachs most of the time."_

_She took a breath and directed her gaze towards the peasants. "To the farmers, you labor to feed your families, but what does she do? Take the food out of your children's mouths to stuff her face and fellow nobles."_

_The exiled princess looked upon the armored individuals. "Our brave knights charged with defending the realm? Oh, how they attempt to dishonor you all every moment and every breath they take by having to serve such dishonorable royalty that care nothing of your sacrifice. They try to shift the blame on to you as if you are responsible for the increasingly demanding burden put upon peasantry."_

_She turned her gaze to the entire crowed and taking time to look at each individual in the eyes. "They pit miner against peasant, peasant against knight and so on… the queen is the enemy of us all. I say enough of their suppression! They should never suppress us so that they may rise above and lull over us as if they have the power! You have the power! Take it back!"_

_The crowed raised their mixed instruments of their trade, pick axes, scythes, swords and lances as they shouted their support for their would be queen._

The screen faded to black and the teenagers turned their attention back to each other.

Nevel smiled as he looked upon the proud creator. "Personally for me, that was the moving scene of the entire film that leads into a powerful conclusion regardless of how it might be perceived by others as maybe too violent, especially with having such small children in the film."

Jade shook her head. "The preschoolers were not on set when we filmed the final scene I can assure you. They didn't see any fake blood, which was actually strawberry syrup. That's how I could lick it off my fingers."

"Regardless, the entire film just showed your enthusiasm for your craft."

Jade nodded along with a small smile. "I'm glad you noticed. My passion is performing and I do hope to be a professional actor. As much as the teachers and staff here at Hollywood Arts try to give us opportunities to perform, there are always shortages and demand for those opportunities for the students. Someone very dear to me suggested that I should create my own opportunities if I wasn't happy with the limited chances to perform. I took his advice and that was how the motivation to make short film was born."

"Would this person be Freddie Benson? Was he the one that suggested that you do a short film? He's listed as technical-producer and editor in the credits of your film. The audience may be familiar with of course for being the former Technical-Producer for the webshow iCarly."

Jade took in a slow breath then released it with a smile as she didn't have anything to be ashamed of with her answer. "Yes, my Freddie suggested the idea." Jade paused for a moment as she thought on how far she wanted to go with the rest of her answer. "He made the suggestion while in L.A. for a workshop held at Hollywood Arts, the high school we're attending, during the summer. He had seen my readmission film and hit on the idea that I should create more to satisfy my artistic need other than just settling with writing scripts."

"If I may ask, how did he go from suggesting doing another film to actually becoming a member of the film crew?"

Jade moved her hands to rest on her left knee as her leg was still crossed over her right leg. She maintained her composure as she answered, "Freddie had always intended to help me in some way from Seattle after the workshop finished, but after Freddie moved to L.A., he had obviously had the chance to contribute more to the film and have a deeper level of involvement than his original plans. It was natural for him to be the technical-producer for the film and one of the two cameramen and of course he had experience with film editing. I can't thank him enough for his assistance."

"He's not the only you can thank for the visual quality of the film."

Jade's hair ruffled on her shoulders as she slightly shook her head. "No he's not and I'm glad you brought that up. The film also showcased the great talents at Hollywood Arts. The actors and actresses are the obvious ones to give credit for the success of the film. I almost exclusively cast the parts from freshman and sophomores so that they could have an opportunity to perform as there is competition for slots and there is an unintentional slight bias that happens of the juniors and seniors getting the majority of the roles."

She broke eye contact from Nevel for a moment as she took a quick breath and gathered more of her thoughts. She looked back up at him and continued, "There are others that deserve recognition, Cat Valentine I mentioned earlier, with her costuming and makeup skills. She design and created the costume I wore in the film. Sinjin Van Cleef, the one filming this interview was the second cameraman and you can see his skills as well with the camerawork. He with not only his camera skills, but his set design abilities you can see is top notch."

Dusty thought for a moment that the curly haired teenager would pass out from the praise he was getting from Jade. He may have been with Ava, but apparently he still had a little crush remaining on Jade.

"If I may take a step back? Where did you get the idea for the film other than the obvious reinterpretation of Snow White?"

Jade laughed softly as she directed some of her gaze

"I had a number of ideas bouncing around to commit to paper, but this one started by sheer randomness of seeing a photo shoot of an actress. The darker interpretation struck a cord with me and the idea just took off. I wrote the first draft in less than a week. We had to push back filming for a week due to… we had to push back filming, but it gave me more time to polish up some ideas."

"There is one other thing I'd like to cover that you brought up before we go."

"Yes?"

"You said '_my_' Freddie when mentioning who gave you the initiative to create a short film? I would be remiss if I didn't at least ask the follow-up question."

Jade's smile faltered for a moment, but regained her composer as she answered, "It's not a secret around Hollywood Arts or on-line that Freddie Benson is my boyfriend."

"So it isn't an entirely professional relationship?"

Jade licked her bottom lip and suddenly felt hesitant to reaffirm something she had already confirmed. She just assumed it was a slight ting of fear of her relationship of Freddie being the topic of discussion. She finally answered with just a bit of tribulation, "No it's not."

"Could you tell us about the professional side of the relationship? You're an actress, director and screenwriter while his background is in the technical side of the field. How has that influenced your work in class and during filming?"

Jade smiled as she knew he had purposely or inadvertently gave her the opportunity to praise Freddie. "For someone that could be called an amateur by the students that dedicate their lives to the study of the craft, he has more practical experience in front of and behind the camera than any student at Hollywood Arts due to his time with iCarly. He's brought a lot of experience to projects and to class. Specifically in regards to the film other than the camera work and editing, I have never seen some able to prepare that many people going from reading a script to full shooting with only a week between the events. I know that is an envious ability."

Nevel raised an eyebrow and spoke with a slightly higher pitch voice, "That's eye opening. I don't know if you are aware, but there was a recent exposé for a local Seattle news station on iCarly with interviews of Carly, Sam and Gibby, but excluded Brad, their new technical-producer. It's rumored that they excluded him because it was felt that he really didn't contribute to the creative side of the show."

She responded with a diplomatic tone and phrase, "I'd like to refrain from commenting directly on the current affairs of iCarly and how she is managing her show, since I don't know the enter workings of it right now, but I will comment on the news caster if… _if_ the rumor is true: she obviously has no idea what it takes to make a successful web-show or any other performance without the skills, knowledge and dedication of all the people behind the scenes and their input in the creative process and my film proves it along with Freddie and Tori's play and every iCarly episode while Freddie was the technical-producer."

"Well that is something to think about… should we expect other short-films in the future?"

Jade cracked a bigger smile and actually let out a nervous laugh, "Hopefully, yes in the future. I don't want to go into too much detail, but there are plans for at least one film in the near future then hopefully additional films as time permits with my and others obligations before graduation."

"I know this is all the time we have allotted for the interview, so I'd like to take the remaining time to tell you that you can catch Miss West's film on SplashFace and learn more about this talented actress from her page on her school's website, theSlap, both which are linked on my site and to thank the gracious Jade West for her time."

He looked to her and warmly smiled as he finished, "Thank you again and I look forward to review more of your films in the future."

"Thank you," she replied with a warm smile.

Sinjin called out, "And we are clear."

Nevel beamed as he stood up and looked to the actress. "I think that went great."

Forgetting about Nevel's past that Freddie had shared with her, she allowed herself to be caught up in the excitement as she stood up. "I'm quite happy with it… I know we couldn't avoid speaking about Freddie, but thank you for not turning the focus onto him and allowing me to give credit to those that deserve it."

Nevel grinned and for a moment Jade thought she saw a glint in his eyes, but quickly vanished as he responded, "You're welcome. How about we celebrate? I can take you and Freddie out to dinner to show you my gratitude for this opportunity?"

Jade paused for a moment as she thought on the offer. She glanced to Dusty still sitting behind the laptop and his facial expression suggested that she should say no for some reason. However, she decided why not take a chance. She begrudgingly had to admit that Nevel had been nothing but nice to her and maybe was attempting to change as she was trying to do with herself after she lost one of the most important things in her life due to her actions. She hesitantly spoke, "I'll have to see if Freddie would be up to it. He's working some extra hours today at the Pear Store; I'll you to let you know in a few hours."

Nevel clapped his hands together and responded, "I'll wait for your answer and hopefully see the two of you later this evening." The web-critic nodded with a smile then headed for the door.

However, Dusty stood up and blocked Nevel's way. "Not so fast," he commented with a slight grin.

"What?

Dusty shook his head. "You're not leaving quite yet."

"Why?"

The taller teenager nodded his head in Jade's direction and answered, "When I know she's home safely then you get to leave."

"That's kidnapping," he shouted with indignation.

Dusty snorted out with disgust, "Save your moral outrage for someone who cares."

Nevel nearly growled out as he stared up at the Angelino who stared right back just as harshly.

Jade grabbed Dusty by the elbow and pulled him to try to get him to exit the room with her. He decided to allow her to drag him out the door. After walking several yards down the hallway, Jade stopped looked to Dusty with an irritated expression. "What are you doing?" she asked with just a hint of annoyance.

"The prudent thing," he replied calmly, but maybe with a hint of dismissive-ness with her concerns.

"_Oh?_" she retorted with low and threatening voice that showed her irritation.

"That's right," he answered her challenge as he met her eyes that shined a crisp blue color caused by the overhead lights and maybe a little bit from her mood.

She was caught off guard for a moment as he hadn't been fazed at all with her tone, but recovered to ask with a disbelieving tone, "Keeping him from leaving until I get home is the prudent thing to do?"

Dusty pointed back to the room and replied with his voice filled with indignation, "Knowing the full story about him instead of relying on what I just saw on the show, but you better believe it."

"What would that be?"

Dusty nodded along, "Okay, you want to know? One time Nevel somehow got hold of the iCarly domain name and they got it back somehow. They never explained how on the show, but Freddie filled me in on what happened and because of that, I'm not letting you and him be in the same room alone. I don't trust the little asshole that much."

The dark brunette snorted out in disbelief. "What could he possibly do to me?"

Dusty tilted his head to the side and replied in a slow and somewhat disgusted voice, "Fifteen year old guy and a very hot seventeen year old girl… do I really need to continue that sentence?"

Jade frowned and spoke with a dark tone as she was offended by his view, "I can take care of myself."

"I know you can West, but my base instincts don't care. I'm a benevolent sexist, okay? That's what chivalry is when it comes down to it. In certain circumstances, I will put a woman first over a man and this is one of those cases."

Jade deeply frowned as she stared at his brown eyes. "You really believe he'd try something?"

"I guess you really don't know the ending of that story." He lifted his right hand and motioned with his right pointer finger for her to lean over.

She complied with the request and he whispered into her ear for about fifteen to twenty seconds. She pulled back and put on an impassive expression on her face.

Dusty commented with a sarcastic tone, "Yeah, he was just going to stop at just a kiss with Carly when he had two thugs to make sure she couldn't leave."

Jade looked down to the hallway floor uncomfortably for a moment then back up to Dusty. "So you weren't here just for us to use the room, but to—"

"Put him down like a rabid dog if necessary… Benson guessed right about one Southern stereotype about me, I would defend a lady's honor… all of her honor, so that's why I'm here. Of course, Benson really doesn't think something like that would happen or you know he wouldn't have let the interview happen, but… I don't ignore the worst in people and since Benson wanted the filming to be somewhere comfortable and safe and I would be needed anyway… why not pull double duty?"

Jade nodded along with somewhat understanding smile. "Why not?" she whispered.

He agreed with a whisper of his own, "Why not?"

The pair remained silent for a few moments until Jade spoke up, "I'll call you when I get home so you know when to let him go."

Dusty kept his mouth shut and answered with a quick nod of his head.

The actress walked past him to head for the exit and to the parking lot. She hadn't gotten that far down the hallway when Dusty called out, "Jade?"

She stopped and turned halfway to look at him. "Yes?"

He gave her a grateful and somewhat humbling smile. "Thanks for humoring this old fashioned throwback… If you give us a few minutes, Sinjin will have Benson's stuff packed and put into your car."

Jade returned his smile and gave a slight nod of her head. "You're welcome Dustin… I'll be waiting in my car."

Maestro's Restaurant  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Saturday, October 22, 2011

The time was approaching seven that evening as Freddie pulled up his beat up Charger into one of the available parking spots next to a classic red Shelby Mustang in the parking lot of the high end establishment after politely declining velvet parking his car. He blew out a tired breath as he exited the car and shut the door behind him then started to walk briskly to the front entrance of Maestro's. He adjusted his dark blue blazer jacket around his neck as he had to swing by the West residence for a quick change after work (along with several additional hours to make up hours from the last two Fridays). He wore a buttoned up white shirt that was un-tucked from his jeans with a blue tie hung loosely around his unbuttoned collar and a blazer jacket in the hopes that no one would complain of him wearing jeans and sneakers to such a high end establishment.

As he reached the door and entered the restaurant, he still tried to wrap his mind around the idea of sitting down and eating a meal with Nevel. It wasn't a pleasant one and would not usually be on any to do list, but Jade had a point over the phone: 'Why pass up a free meal at Maestro's?'

He hadn't had a chance to eat at the high class restaurant the rest of them had told him about when telling the stories of 'winning' ping-pong championships. However, he couldn't shake the feeling that was summed up with a piece of Scripture as he entered the restaurant: '_Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies._'

After Freddie exchanged a few polite words with the lovely blonde hostess that had taken care of the Hollywood Arts students during their last celebratory dinner, he was escorted to a small table where Jade was sitting across from Nevel with Dusty sitting on one side between them. The three appeared to be idly chit-chatting as they ate on a plate of appetizers.

As he reached the table with the hostess, he noticed that Dusty was staring down Nevel and if the look on the web-critic's face was an indication of his true feelings, he wasn't appreciating the scrutiny. The Southern teenager also stood out from the rest of the patrons of the restaurant by wearing a navy and white flannel pattern shirt over a grey Penny-T and blue jeans. Freddie also noticed what was printed in yellow letters on the shirt: Cam Shipper. In light of the last several months, he regretfully wondered how correct Dusty could be in that regard.

Freddie brushed that aside as he walked around to stand beside Jade and saw how lovely she was in the outfit she still wore from the interview. She quickly got up from her seat and gave him a soft kiss on her right cheek to greet him. He smiled to his thanks for the gesture then nodded his thanks to the hostess. He was about to have a seat next to Jade, but Dusty stood up and spoke as he looked at the couple, "It looks like it's my time to head out. You two have a nice evening."

Nevel frowned deeply at the backhanded insult as Dusty had purposely left him out in wishing him a nice night.

"Thanks, Dusty."

"Hey? What are fans for?" he answered with a mischievous smile. "But before I go, I need to know: do you want to get started on editing tomorrow or just wait until Monday?"

Freddie grinned as he answered, "I'll see you on Monday."

"No problem." He looked to Jade and gave her a respectful nod. He commented with a sweet voice, "It was a pleasure West and you do look very lovely."

She smiled playfully at him and gave a return nod.

He smirked as he turned and headed out, but called out with a wave over his shoulder, "See you two around."

Freddie pulled out Jade's chair further to help her retake her seat and once she retook her seat, he sat down in the seat to her left. He caught sight of Nevel's irritated expression and curiously asked in a manner he hoped wasn't meant to dig at him, "Is something bothering you Nevel?"

Nevel looked to Freddie as if he were caught for a moment. He shook his head and quickly put on an unconvincing smile as he answered, "Oh? No, nothing. I'm fine. Actually I'm better than fine after today's interview."

Freddie suppressed a grin as he looked on to Nevel. Dusty had apparently gotten under Nevel's skin during the day, which he was quiet happy about happening since an irritated Nevel was a distracted Nevel. If he was distracted then it would be far harder for him to concentrate on pulling something over on them if the web-critic had decided to double cross them after all. He would have to remember to find someway to repay theSlap's webmaster.

Freddie was pulled away from his musings as Jade decided to lean over and whisper several suggestions in his ear as she held up a menu for him to read. She quickly explained that they had already ordered, but had instructed them to wait to fulfill until he had arrived and ordered. He turned his head slightly to catch her glance and nodded along to one of her suggestions.

Jade raised a her hand and the waitress quickly came over to take Freddie's order then just as quickly dashed away for it to get prepared.

Once she was out of sight, Nevel decided to continue, "I think the interview went well. I know it is going to be a hit."

Freddie wearily glanced over to Jade.

She smiled and nodded her confirmation as she spoke, "I think it well too. I'm happy with it. It gave me a chance to point out the _ones _that really deserve the credit in making it happen." She held her gaze on him as she stressed ones.

Whatever apprehension he had left of the whole idea around the interview turning out badly was swept away with her reassuring smile. Freddie cautiously stated/asked, "So you decided to treat us to an expensive dinner?"

Nevel was visibly able to push away any lingering anxiety with a genuine smile plastered on his face. "It's my way to thank you two for the interview and your help last year to try to repair my image."

"Don't butter me up Nevel," Freddie warned with a hint of impatience.

Nevel's smile faltered for a moment as he stumbled through his words, "I'm sorry… I was just hoping that you could help me one more time while I was here."

Freddie asked cautiously as he looked to the younger teenager, "What's that?" His instincts were screaming that whatever Nevel was about to say was really the next shoe to drop.

"I was hoping that you could secure another interview while I was here… of course I wouldn't post it for weeks, because Jade should get all the attention with her interview."

The former Seattleite's concern turned into curiosity. "You want to interview Ava or one of the other actors?"

Nevel shook his head as he responded, "No, I wanted to interview you."

Freddie blinked and tilted his head down slightly as looked on the younger teenager and wondered if he had heard correctly. "Me? Why me? You already know my technical background. How would that help you?"

Nevel chuckled softly as he replied, "No, not about that, I want to get and share the real answer to the biggest question of them all concerning you."

Freddie narrowed his eyes on the younger teenager as he asked quietly, "What question would that be?"

Nevel smiled softly with a bit of patience as he realized Freddie didn't understand what he meant. "Simple: 'Why did Freddie Benson leave iCarly?'"

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Yes, Jade is wearing the same outfit Liz Gillies wore in Blooptorious during her interview with Christopher Cane. Later, OneHorseShay.<p> 


	20. Chapter 20

Author's Note: Hello my dear readers. As you can see if you're reading this on the update day then you will notice that it isn't April 6th when I said I was going to make my next update, but I got a lot of extra time to get some writing done and realized after my last post that I said I was going to try to post on Good Friday. So I decided to go ahead and post today and have the next chapter ready by the following Friday.

Of course, thanks for the readership and the reviews. For those of you that haven't reviewed don't be shy. I do respond to them.

Also, congratulations are in order to Victorious for winning the KCAs on Saturday. Oh, and did you see Elizabeth 'Liz' Gillies? To paraphrase Freddie, blue is definitely her color.

Well, on with the story.

* * *

><p>Chapter 20<p>

Freddie's face immediately fell as all the pieces to the puzzle of Nevel's scheme, that he knew had to exist, dropped into place inside his head: Nevel's glowing review of Jade's film a week ago, him showing up with the quite plausible explanation of wanting a follow-up to his review with an exclusive interview with Jade then the admittance that he was desperate to get his audience back to make Freddie think that he had uncovered 'the plan' and was really in control, playing on the fact that some of his former fans were trashing Jade on-line and giving him a way of effectively responding… all in an effort to get what he really wanted: the truth out of Freddie and share it with the world so that his site would be flooded with viewers that wanted the whole story.

He turned his full attention towards Nevel as his deep-seated rage boiled up and whispered in a cold voice, "So that's what this was all about? _I warned you_ not to involve her with whatever scheme you were planning."

Jade blinked with confusion as she looked back and forth between Freddie and Nevel.

Nevel stuttered out for a moment before he could form whole words, "I wasn't planning any—"

Freddie slammed his fist hard on the table and hissed out in a low tone, "Bullshit!"

Some of the other patrons turned their heads to look over at the trio as they noticed the outburst, including Jade who jumped slightly in her seat, but Freddie ignored them as he stared harshly at Nevel.

The web-critic swallowed nervously as he saw the murderous intent in usually unimposing teenager's eyes.

Freddie clenched his fist tightly as he maintained his stare and barely constrained his anger in his voice, "The interview with Jade was nothing but a way for you to try to ingratiate yourself into my life to somehow get the truth out of me. How were you going to do it? What little speech do you have in your head right now to convince me to talk to you? Say that I can trust you with posting a great interview showing off Jade? You'd need me to say something to really drive the nail in to those nutty fans? What?"

Jade's confusion was quickly replaced with embarrassment then anger at being used and her talent disregard once again for someone else. She tired to ignore the sharp pain in her heart of that person that she was disregarded for this time was Freddie instead of say Tori.

Nevel's mouth moved up and down a few moments trying to form words.

Freddie snorted out and shook his head in disgust. In barely above a whisper he finished, "It doesn't matter. I wouldn't tell you chizz. I wouldn't tell you just to spite you for trying to pull this on Jade."

Apparently that was enough to snap Nevel out of his dumbfound-ness and answer with a slightly impatient tone, "How about vengeance?"

Freddie's anger was quenched for a moment as he blinked with confusion.

Nevel pounced and pressed on so he could shift the momentum back in his favor, "How about vengeance on them? Has the thought ever occurred to you to make them rue doing what they've done to you? Whatever happened between the three of you must have been horrific enough that moving from Seattle and in with a girl you barely know must have been the sanest option for you. And since you've left? They haven't defended you on-line. They've never defended you looking back on all the episodes. I remember the internet war you had with the Fred guy, Lucas. They didn't defend you. What did they do to get you to change your mind and say you liked him? Did Carly let Sam beat you up instead of stopping her whenever that blonde haired demon wanted to tear me apart?"

The sandy blonde teenager took a quick breath then made his final play, "Now they pretend that you never existed on the show… Yes, I want the truth. Everyone wants to know the real story and not just the rumors of a falling out between you three over Sam wanting to date you."

Freddie's breathing had spiked during Nevel's little spiel and now was trying to calm his breath as he was seething with anger and embarrassment at how accurate Nevel assessed the situation. He channeled that anger to one last comeback, "You don't care one damn about me, but your ratings. That's all you care—"

Nevel snapped back in frustration, "Why not? I just want it back the way it was! Have you never wanted back what was yours? _To have your life back?_"

Freddie took in a sharp breath as he stared at the sandy blonde teenager. He slightly frowned and looked down and was unable to focus on anything on the table. The next moment Freddie stood up then turned his head slightly to look at Jade still sitting. He whispered, "I'm sorry, but I've suddenly lost my appetite." He didn't wait for a reply as he turned to make his way through the restaurant to head for the exit and leaving the other two teenagers dumbfounded and shocked from his sudden departure.

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Saturday, October 22, 2011

The time was approaching eleven as the darkness of the night in Freddie's room was held back only by the low watt light bulb of the lamp resting on his nightstand. Freddie had no real use for the light behind him as he leaned back in his chair with his right elbow resting on the armrest and propping up his head held up with his fingertips just above his temple and thumb pad on his right cheek; his light source that flickered over his face was from the computer monitor playing another video he was watching. The current video was last night's episode iCarly being hosted by Sam and Gibby. The dirty blonde had mentioned that Carly was absent due to visiting her grandfather and wishing him good luck on recovering from foot surgery.

He thought for a moment about sending an e-mail through Colonel Shay to check up on the oldest Shay. He blew out a breath a moment later as he wondered why he was kidding himself in wanting to check up on Carly's granddad as he never forgave that bastard for nearly taking Carly from him in their eight grade year. He did have a passing thought on what the Colonel had thought about the incident, but quickly brushed it away as earlier episode with Carly in it started playing.

Since he got back several hours ago after an eerily silent ride with Jade after she met him at the car about ten minutes later after he left the restaurant, he had been sitting in his room catching up with all the episodes since he left Seattle. He didn't know why he was watching the videos. Maybe he subconsciously felt the need to confirm what Nevel had said about them acting like he had never been on the show… or maybe he felt the need to torture himself of watching what he left behind.

The web-critic unfortunately had been right about his assertion of the show: they did act like he had never been on the show. He obviously had not been on the camera as much as Carly and Sam (but still far more practical experience than the rest of the students at Hollywood Arts), but the characters and situations he had played were replaced with Brad or picked up by Gibby without a word. He hadn't noticed or specifically looked for the change in the show from the few episode bits he had watched a month ago… only that other than the one episode he had been behind the camera to watch, Carly's eyes still carried a regretful look while she stood in front of the camera.

Despite the brooding session he had been suffering through the last few hours and realizations, he cracked a smile at Carly bouncing a joke off of Sam.

However, he wasn't alone in his brooding, at least not for the last minute or so. The former Seattleite had left his door open for some reason and that had allowed Jade to rest against the left door frame to watch him. The teenager had changed into sleepwear, included one of his old Penny-T's that he had outgrown due to rehab, as soon as they had arrived home as she wanted nothing more to relax and forget about how the day had ended. The only thing that had remained was her dark red hair extensions. The need to relax was the primary reason that she had left her boyfriend alone in his thoughts for the last few hours, but she finally felt that she needed to check on him. She remained quiet as he watched the screen with an apprehensive look on her natural face where she also had removed of all makeup and including her facial jewelry.

She thought that he had done what he always did when he got overly stressed and that would be to delve into a few hours of World of Warlords if they weren't playing video games with each other, but she had not expected him to be watching iCarly episodes. As she watched him in silence, she was surprised that she hadn't heard Carly voice, but once she did, she frowned and her eyes fell as she saw the smallest of smiles on Freddie's face.

The dark brunette clenched her eyes shut tight and wrapped her arms around herself. She took in a sharp breath then turned to walk away. As she turned her back on him and was prepared to walk back to her room, she heard Freddie call out with a tired voice, "Nevel is the third person after Lane and you to ask if I wanted my old life back."

The dark brunette's feet froze in place and her eyes snapped open. She slowly turned to cautiously look at her boyfriend.

Freddie rotated the seat slightly and leaned back to get a better look of the dark brunette. He took a deep breath and slowly let it out as his eyes just watched the pale teenager get over the shock of the statement and trying to process a response.

Jade cleared her throat as she continued to hold herself tightly. She sniffled quickly then motioned towards the monitor as she whispered, "Do you? Are you still tempted… more tempted now?"

Freddie lifted his head to allow his hand to drop away from his face and hang loose at the end of the armrest. His face became an impassive expression as he answered, "Tempted?" He let the question hang in the air for a few moments as he focused on anything other than the pale brunette standing feet away from him.

The dark brunette took a quick breath then asked almost rhetorically, "Is that why you ran out of the restaurant? Nevel was right?"

He took a slow breath then released it as he continued, "Two weeks ago, Lane got on the subject of forgiveness when working out my disagreement with Tori. She said she was sorry even if she knew I was sick of hearing people saying it to me and Lane picked up on that. Their apologizes just made me angrier. He got out of me that I wasn't ready to forgive… I didn't know how to forgive."

The brown eyed teenager took a quick breath and continued, "He challenged me on whether my nature would even allow me to continually hold resentment towards them, towards Carly then he asked maybe that I was too afraid to forgive. Would forgiving them mean that there wouldn't be any reason not to go back? That all the things that made me leave being swept away and I could get my life back with only the good things remaining?"

Jade's eyes widened as she took an audible swallow and her neck and shoulder muscles tensed up.

Freddie saw the instant change in her body language and raised his right pointer finger to point at her. "I've been burying that fear for two weeks; what you are experiencing right now."

The dark brunette blinked as one word whispered through her mind, _'Fear?'_

Freddie stood up from his chair and looked her straight in the eyes. As the only light shared between the standing couple was from the nightstand light and the ambient light from the hallway, her eyes shifted more to a greenish shade as she met his brown eyes in return. "I've been running away from facing those questions and been dodging Lane to give him an answer because I was terrified that the answers could be yes… until tonight. I've been sitting here for hours watching their lives without me and debating the answers to those questions. I realized a few things…"

He tilted his head slightly to his right as he maintained eye contact and whispered with a near exhausted voice, "I've known since my last talk with Lane that he's right… I have to forgive… at least at some point or I wouldn't be me. _I need to be me_…" He slightly shook his head, "I'm still willing to be damned for who I am over who I am not…"

Jade tried to keep up her own impassive mask as her mind instantly responded, _'I won't damn you…'_

He snorted out with a bit of a smirk continued, "But it's just not that or that my faith demands it… I have to forgive them for more practical reasons…" The brown eyed teenager turned slightly and pointed back to the computer monitor with the still playing video and continued, "…if I don't, they still have power over me just as surely as if I was still with them getting smacked on one hand and emotionally manipulated by the other."

He dropped his hand and turned to completely face her with a cold expression. He shook his head and closed his eyes for a few moments. "I am so _anger_ Jade… almost all the time except when I'm with you and the others and even then it flares up at times… so I have to forgive them at some point just to find the peace I'm looking for."

Jade's fear started ebbing away towards pity, sadness and maybe a little bit of relief at his words. She had begged him to stay instead of going back to what she considered Hell and a part of her was happy and relieved that he had found refuge from his former life with her. However, she feared his next words.

Freddie cracked a tired and weary smile, "Now we get to Lane's second question. Would forgiving them really mean that there wouldn't be any reason not to go back?"

The fear crept up from the pit of her stomach and spreading over heart like the icy fingers of Death meant to stop her heart, maybe not physically, but definitely emotionally. She wouldn't deny in her mind how much fondness her heart had for her heartbroken brown eye boy.

He shook his with the barest turn of his head. "The question assumes that I don't have any reasons to stay here and my life is determined by what happens in Seattle … it doesn't." His voice became firmer and more confident as he continued, "Whatever little piece of me that would want to go back doesn't dictate my choice… that little piece I have to accept that Carly will always have of me because she's my first love, but the same reasons I would rather be here than in Seattle I gave Carly last time are still valid… even more so now. I am happy… I am happy with life here and all the people in it including Beck and then…"

He took the few steps to close the distance between them and reached up to cup her cheeks with his palms and looked her straight in the eyes. The pale teenager swallowed as her eyes saw the intensity in his eyes and the warmth of his hands banished away the crawling coldness as instantly as sunlight banishes a Nosferatu.

He broke into a warm and genuine smile as he finished with a whisper, "Then there is you… my Jadelyn West…" He leaned forward and softly captured her lips as his thumb pads gently stroked her cheeks.

Jade took a sharp breath through her nose, but quickly reciprocated his affection as she slid her hands through his arms and locked her hands behind his neck. The pair exchanged dominance over this increasingly desperate kiss as each allowed their lips to part as they deepened the kiss. The couple's lips broke away from on another only for the briefest of moments to catch their breaths and kiss again.

The couple finally broke their lips apart and rested their respective forehead on the other's forehead as they tried to catch their breath.

His hands slid away from her cheeks, over her shoulders, down her sides until his hands finally rested on her hips as she still rested her locked hands around his neck. He took several more calming breaths then looked into her eyes.

She stared back with a mix of joy and apprehension.

He finally whispered with an almost reverent tone as if he was making a sacred vow, "My Jadelyn West… I want to stay here _with you_ and I will find those words one day that will tell you how much you mean to me… and how grateful I am to you for all you've done for me…" He closed his eyes and finished with a hint of apprehension in his voice as he asked his question, "_Are you sure_ you're not an angel?"

The dark brunette with dark red streaks in her hair remained silent from how humbled and reassured she felt with his words. She was amazed at times out how he was able to listen to her without saying anything (well except for the public affection thing, but no one is perfect) and to find the words to reassure her and he hadn't disappointed her now. A part of her wanted to chuckle with his reference to the phrase that lead to their night together and partially started the road from their friendship into something more and his silly (but becoming quite endearing) little notion of his about her possibly being an angel, but she wouldn't belittle him with any comment if he wanted to think such a thing.

The couple was silent as they stood and held each other for a few seconds that seemed to stretch out to minutes.

Freddie finally broke the silent with a whisper that seemed to carry throughout the room and even over the continued video still playing on the monitor, "I'm sorry if I really scared you."

She pulled her head back so she could better look into his warm eyes then softly spoke, "You didn't scare me… I scared myself. I was just feeling as scared as I was that night in your hotel room when I realized you'd be gone in a week. I want you to stay too. I guess I'm still a little worried about Carly, especially after she's apparently sorry for everything, at seeing you watch their videos. She's not some fan or girl at school that wants to flirt with you, but your first love." She broke into an ironic grin as she asked, "How do you compete with someone's first love?"

Freddie gave his boyish smile in return as he replied, "Well, I've learned from a very lovely and smart girl that the best way to do that is to be yourself and try to show him or her how much you care any chance you get."

Jade grin turned into a mischievous smile as she responded, "I might need to have a talk with this girl that likes giving advice to my guy and make sure she doesn't get any funny ideas."

The brown eyed teenager leaned forward and gave her a quick peck on her lips then retorted, "I don't think that'll be necessary… she already has funny ideas about me and you don't seem to have a problem with it."

She softly laughed then pulled him towards her and brought him into a deep kiss.

* * *

><p>The clock on Freddie's nightstand displayed the time approaching midnight as the couple lay on the tech-producer's bed as Freddie gently stroking his fingers through Jade's hair and she rested her head with closed eyes on his left shoulder as they relaxed in the company of each other. His gesture was not just a way to show affection, but to partially straighten her hair out as the dark brunette's initial kiss had lead to a far heavier than one of their typical make out sessions which left them both with tender lips and flushed cheeks. His shirt was far more wrinkled than when they started their affectionate exchange while the hem of the Penny T that Jade wore was pushed up her abdomen just above her bellybutton. The large bow she tied from the drawstring to her pajama bottoms had partially loosened and allowed the waist of the paints to partially slide over her hips and expose the very top of the black colored waist band of her underwear.<p>

Of course they also had all the typical and expected physiological responses that two teenagers would have in that situation which made them eventually realize they needed to slow down as his bedroom door had been left open. Neither of their minds overlooked the fact that if he hadn't left it open they may have gone further as apparently both this time were willing to let nature take its course as it had the first night they were together.

Freddie may not have wanted to disturb their peaceful moment, but there was still something that needed to be discussed. "I'm sorry about Nevel."

Jade slightly stirred her head on his shoulder as she spoke barely above a whisper, "I… I thought he might try something from what you told me, but… I didn't expect to be pushed aside again… for you."

Freddie closed his eyes as he tried to calm his breath and push down the angry rising from his chest. He blew out a breath and spoke softly, "It bothers you enough with Tori."

The dark brunette remained silent for a few seconds until she hesitantly admitted, "Yeah."

Freddie's fingers gently stroked through Jade's hair. "That won't happen next time. The next production at school where you and Tori are competing for a lead… Sikowitz isn't going to just pick her over you because of his favoritism… I won't let him."

The actress opened her eyes at hearing his declaration, but kept her head resting on his shoulder. She didn't know what he could do, but she didn't doubt that he wouldn't at least do something… that was just his nature that she hoped he would never let slip away from him.

Freddie let out a slow breath. "So what do you want to do about Nevel?"

Jade lifted her head off of his shoulder and raised her left eyebrow as she looked down at him.

He cracked a small smile. "It's always been your decision and I'm following your lead."

She let out a soft breath through her nose and closed her eyes. She slightly shook her head then whispered, "I don't know. I mean you can't seriously reconsider giving him an interview—"

"No, I'm not. The truth is too embarrassing all around and it would be a step back in wanting to forgive."

The pale actress (with still a hint of flush on her cheeks and on her neck) opened her eyes and gave a relieved smile. "And I wouldn't want you to, but what's left? He may not have the interview, but there's no reason to trust him with actually putting it up and sticking to what we agreed if you give it to him."

Freddie's brow furled, but the right corner of his mouth lifted up to for a contemplating smirk. "Why not?"

She slightly frowned as she asked with a confused laced voice, "What?"

The former Seattleite's smile grew bigger as he asked more confidently, "Why not hold him to his word? I am not letting him jank me over one more time and especially not letting him do the same to you. You spent your Saturday going through the trouble of the interview, so why not use it?"

Jade glanced up over his head to the headboard of the bed as a small smile formed on her lips as she thought on his point. She looked back down to meet his eyes and hesitantly stated with a mischievous tone, "I would like to make him sorry for a very long time for what he tried to pull, but what do you have in mind?"

He shrugged his right shoulder. "I'm not exactly sure of the details about how I could convince him of doing the right thing, but I have plenty of options…" He lost his train of thought as another idea dawned on him and he started to softly chuckle.

"What?" Jade asked with growing curiosity and a playful smile replacing her impish smile.

Freddie blew out a quick breath then answered with a knowing smile, "Oh I have the perfect idea…"

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Sunday, October 23, 2011

Nevel was surprised and in a near stupor at seeing the splendor of the West home out the backseat window when the taxi pulled up in front of the two-story home just before noon on the clear Sunday morning. After quickly paying the driver, he exited the yellow vehicle and stopped for a moment to look at the nearly country style home. He caught sight with his peripheral vision that the garage was large enough to hold three vehicles.

A part of his mind realized that he shouldn't be that surprised at the appearance when he realized the taxi was heading into an upscale neighborhood. If this was where the former iCarly Technical-Producer was living, he could partially understand the move simply as an upgrade from the apartment where he used to live.

Nevel blew out a breath to try to expel any excess nervousness as he approached the front door and walked up to the near wrap around covered front porch of the home. He put on a confident smile to show that he wouldn't be fazed or intimidated by Freddie or Jade as he lifted his hand to press the button to the doorbell.

He waited patiently for a few seconds until the door opened and he was met by a lovely woman that had the appearance of someone in her late thirties or early forties. The West Matriarch looked down at the teenager with barely restrained disgust and any notion of not being intimidated vanished. The raven haired beauty greeted him with a tight smile, "I'm Mrs. West."

He gave her a polite nod of his head and answered as respectfully as possible, "Hello Mrs. West."

She maintained an even expression as she stepped aside and motioned for him to enter her home.

He cautiously stepped over the threshold and into the foyer. He took a moment to take in the expansive home. Nevel looked straight forward to see what looked like and expensive living room then to his right to see a possible study through closed French doors.

Mrs. West motioned her hand towards his left which caught his attention and turned to see through the open doors the dinning room with an impressive table. What was also obvious was that Freddie and Jade were sitting on the other side of the table with each wearing an impassive expression if not outright bored look on the pale actress' face.

He turned his body to face the other teenagers in the dinning room and Mrs. West took the opportunity to lean over his shoulder and whispered into his right ear, "On your eighteenth birthday, Carly's father will make you pay for all the things you've done to her… and he is not a merciful man."

Nevel froze in place as he felt as if the temperature had dropped. He was able to glance from the corner of his right eye the beauty head for the living room further in the house.

Once the dark haired beauty was mostly out of sight and the web-critic finished gathering his wits, he slowly walked into the room and stopped just in front of the opposite side of the table from where the couple was seated.

Freddie stared the standing teenager in the eyes and whispered with a dry tone and motion of his hand to on of the seats on his side of the table, "Have a seat."

Nevel hesitated as he looked at the technical-producer then disregarded his indecision and had a seat across from the couple. He took a quick breath then asked with as much confidence he could gather from under the stare of the pair, "So you wanted to talk?"

Freddie answered with a light conversational tone, "Yes… last night ended quite abruptly with certain things unresolved."

The younger teenager was eager to counter, "You walked out and stuck me with the check."

Freddie tilted his head slightly down and put on an expression that more or less displayed, 'Are you kidding?' He retorted while maintaining his expression, "You were going to pay for the meal anyway, what are you complaining about?"

The web-critic slightly frowned at Freddie's comeback, but brushed it off as he decided to deal with the matter at hand, "What exactly did you want to discuss?"

Freddie slightly shook his head as he leaned back in his chair and rested a hand on the table. He spoke with an almost bored tone in response, "Nothing; I am not going to discuss or negotiate anything with you. You're here to just listen to what's going to happen: I'm not going to do an interview with you, no, ifs, ands or buts about it; you are going to stick with our original agreement and show our edited version of the interview so that Jade and you will both look good and get something out of it; and you're not going to double cross us. If you release some kind of cut up edited version of the interview from what we send you to make her look bad like the way you did with Carly and Sam clips to fool Shelby Marx because I won't do an interview with you, I'm going to release our version of it then we go to war and when the dust settles, one way or the other, I will end and you will be sorry _for a very long time_."

Nevel took in a sharp breath as he stared into Freddie's cold eyes behind the cold mask he wore. He saw that the Dusty boy had been right about this being a different Freddie than the last time he saw the tech-producer. His eyes displayed a certain level of ruthlessness he had only really seen in Sam's eyes a few times when she wanted to tear him apart. Oh, how he would love to know the real story about what caused Freddie's change just to satisfy his own curiosity. However, his apprehension with Freddie's new behavior or his own curiosity was not going to allow him to be intimidated by the older teenager or lose out on a chance to maneuver Freddie into a position to change his mind about the interview.

He tried to hide the nervous swallow by distracting the pair's eyesight to him straightening his blazer then retorted, "So you're still not open at all to the idea?"

The brown eyed teenager softly shook his head as he calmly replied, "Nope. I'm not. You'll just have to be satisfied with the fact that Jade is going to bring you a lot of viewers."

Nevel gritted his teeth for a moment then spoke with a hint of threat in his voice, "Just suppose you were able to carry out your threat, it would take months and I could do a lot of damage in the meantime and make you rue that decision. You're right that we're still both in a position to make out very well with Jade's interview, but how much better could we look with your interview weeks from now?"

Freddie nodded along calmly and spared a glance towards Jade. The actress didn't appear to be anymore concerned than how Freddie was displaying with his facial expression or posture. He wore a slight smile as he answered, "That's very true… you could make a mess a bigger mess before I stepped on you or your mother stopped you." Freddie smirked at the dig that Nevel's mother could stop him, "But… the truth is not for everyone else and they will just have to chalk it up to rumor and mystery as to why I left. I do however have a more immediate option at my disposal to make sure you keep your word." Freddie lifted his hand and motioned over to someone Nevel immediately assumed was standing somewhere behind him.

He turned slightly in his chair to look over his right shoulder. The sandy blonde teenager's eyes widened and his throat constricted as he looked up at a brunette confidently strutting over to him then stopped as she leaned over him to rest her left hand on the top of the backrest and her right on the armrest.

She smiled down at him as if she a cat ready to enjoy a nice meal as she whispered, "Hi Nevel."

Nevel was barely able to spit out his question as he was in disbelief at seen the teenage girl in front of him, "Shelby?" He jerked his head back towards Freddie and looked him in the eyes. "How? How did you get her here?"

Freddie smirked as he enjoyed the squirming web-critic. "Oh Nevel… I have my ways."

The brunette grabbed Nevel by the chin and forced him to look at her piercing brown eyes as his was showing his fear. She wore a confident smirk as she asked, "You're going to do what you're supposed to or am I going to have to teach you another lesson?"

Nevel turned away from looking at the teenager to look back at Freddie and Jade. He desperately conceded, "I'll post exactly what you send me and I'll review all her future films fairly."

The dark brunette spoke up with menacing smile, "Good. Who knows? If this works out, we can do this again after my next film."

"Right," Nevel hesitatingly admitted then remained silent as he tried not to think about the fighter he tried to manipulate years ago still staring down at him.

The silence as Nevel just remained sitting there Jade motioned her hand over to the foyer and stated dryly, "We're done, so you can wait out on the front porch for whatever ride you have planning to pick you up."

The younger teenager couldn't get out of his seat fast enough and walk around the other side of the chair from the lovely teenager to head out of the room and front door.

As soon as the front door closed behind Nevel and they were certain he was out on the porch, Tori blew out a breath and rolled her eyes in relief. "I can't believe he bought that."

Jade chuckled as she relaxed back in her chair, "Neither did I. I didn't think you could pull off the act."

Tori crossed her arms and gave the darker brunette a slight frown and annoyed stare.

Freddie gave his girlfriend a playful smile and gently asked, "Momentum?"

Jade slightly frowned then relented with a roll of her eyes. "Momentum," she admitted with a grumble. She glanced back at the girl that had been her rival for a long and admitted, "Fine, you did a good job scaring the chizz out of him."

Tori cracked a smile at the rare compliment from Jade as she took Nevel's former seat then replied, "Thanks, it was fun, but I had my doubts too. I mean, I really don't look all that much like—"

Freddie snorted out and gave a patient smile as he interrupted, "You could pass for her identical twin."

"Then how come you thought Tori was 'way hotter' than Shelby if you think they're identical?" Jade raised an eyebrow and put on a playful smirk as she challenged him with his own words from when he recounted their side of the story regarding Steven and their original trip to Los Angeles, but ignoring for the moment the part of the story where Carly had hit him with an orange for thinking such a thing.

The brown eyed teenager laughed for a moment and shook his head to avoid eye contact with either girl. He looked up to let his gaze wonder between the pair as he answered with a playful voice to go along with his smile and raised right pointer finger, "One, for the record, Tori and Shelby are equally hot." Freddie raised his second finger, "Two, I blame the weird TARDIS time effect Carly's computer was producing for screwing up my head and saying such a nonsensical thing."

"What?" Tori asked with a playful and confused snap of her voice.

Jade slightly frowned and brow furled showing her confusion.

Freddie blew out a breath and quickly explained, "The next picture I brought up after Carly found the one with you and Steven at the Asphalt Café was a picture of you from your performance of 'Begging on Your Knees'."

Tori blinked several times then putter out, "But you couldn't have… that happened weeks after everything."

Freddie snorted out with laughter, "I know, but I did… creepy isn't it? But it was you at the performance with your black mesh top and blue shirt over it."

Both girls turned to one another and stared to check to see if the other one really heard what he had spoken.

Freddie raised his hands up and slightly shook his head with a laugh, "Fine, don't believe me, but it is the truth and I'm standing by it."

The lighter brunette snorted out and shook her head as she was more than willing to believe him after all the nutty adventures he had been involved in during his time with iCarly. She grinned as she asked the tech-producer, "So, you want to film the little segment for theSlap now or do you want to eat lunch first?"

Freddie smiled as the attention was turned to focus on something far more pleasant than having to deal with Nevel and all the baggage of Seattle. "How about we do a few dry runs, eat lunch then film it for real? It'll give me a chance to see if it's filming right while we're eating and make sure Nevel's not still outside when we film."

Jade nodded and answered casually, "Sounds fine to me."

Tori nodded and smiled as she answered, "Okay." She turned and headed to the foyer so she could cut through the living room to get to his room. "I'm kind of curious about what your room looks like," she called out as she turned out of sight from the dinning room.

Jade called out with annoyance filling her voice, "We're going to film in the kitchen!"

As Freddie stood up with a smile to follow Tori to his room, Jade followed suit, but was able to grab Freddie by his left elbow to bring him to a stop. He turned his head to see Jade's concerned eyes. She spoke in a low tone, "All joking aside about Tori and Shelby, I didn't think it was going to be that easy."

"That's because it's not over… he won't give up this easily…" He turned his head away and whisper in an almost ominous tone, "He still wants his old life back and he thinks I'm his way back to it, so even after he gets the interview, it won't be the last we hear from him."

She held her gaze on her boyfriend's profile as her face fell in realization of the profoundness that goal must be for Nevel then gave a slight nod of her head in agreement.

Her brown eyed boy turned his head and gave her a playful smile. He motioned his head in Tori's direction and stated, "Come on. Let's see if my tinkering with my camera will actually pay off so I can actually film your film in three-D when your script's ready."

The pale actress smiled then looped her arm around his left arm. She allowed him to escort her to his room so they could film something just as silly as letting glue dry on one's hand she did one time with Tori or a Tori burger Cat had made in one of her Slap videos.

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><p>Author's Note: So how did you like my explanation about Shelby, Tori and Freddie's explanation? I hope my UK readers enjoyed the joke. It's funny because in iParty with Victorious during the editing process they did put up a picture of Victoria Justice from her performance of 'Beggin' on your Knees' from the episode of the same name for Freddie to look at which is suppose to take place after iPwV. Remember, he's looking at a piece green screen in a monitor frame when filming and they go back and put the screen in post-production, but they just happen to pick a shot from a Victoria episode also filmed after iPwV to put in that place. And yes, the episode takes place after iPwV due to the change in color of Jade's hair and shift in Cat's personality. Later, OneHorseShay.<p> 


	21. Chapter 21

Author's Note: Hello my dear readers. I hope you have had a nice two week and for all those that celebrate Easter had a wonderful Easter. I have a pretty long update this time and no place to split it up, so you get it all in one chapter. Due to its length, the next update should be on April 27. Thanks again to everyone for their continued support with this story.

* * *

><p>Chapter 21<p>

Asphalt Café  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Monday, October 24, 2011

The Hollywood Arts gang was around their usual table having lunch and chatting about what happened during their individual weekends and mornings other than their shared class with Sikowitz. The Halloween dance on Saturday came up as a topic of discussion with them throwing out their ideas of what costumes they were going to wear with Jade remaining silent, but sent reassuring smiles to Freddie letting him know that she was heavily leaning to yes in going with him.

Freddie was sitting on the side of the table with his back towards the direction of the Grub Truck. He smiled as he pulled the straw of his drink away from his mouth then jumped into the various conversations by asking Cat sitting to his right, "So how was Lucas' movie on Saturday?"

Cat grinned and brushed away some of her red velvet hair off of her left cheek as she thought back on Lucas' newest Fred movie shown over the weekend. She answered with a childlike giggle, "I loved it. I thought it was really funny and just the right amount of scariness."

Trina mumbled out from where she was sitting across the table from Freddie and very close to Beck to her right (as her right arm pressed against his left arm close), "He was irritating as chizz." A small smile formed on her face as she continued, "The only tolerable thing about the whole movie was Daniella; she was fantastic in it."

Tori smirked from her place at the center of the back bench of the table as she held up a French fry and responded with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, "You didn't have to watch it with us you know."

The older Vega rolled her eyes at sister as she sarcastically replied, "You ordered my favorite pizza and I was not going to miss out on that since you weren't going to let me take any with me."

After popping the fry in her mouth and quickly chewing the morsel of food, Tori snapped a bit defensively, "You would have taken the whole pizza if I let you go to your room."

Freddie grinned as he commented to Cat to defuse the budding sibling argument, "I'm glad you enjoyed it Cat." He looked to Trina and commented, "I'm not surprised. She is always underappreciated in anything appears in."

Jade smirked and spoke in a soft voice with a strange mix of humor and regret meant for only Freddie's ears, but carried for everyone at the table to hear her, "Too bad you couldn't have a least told him the real truth behind Lucas."

Tori's eyes widened and her mouths shaped into an 'O' for a moment as she knew exactly what the darker brunette was speaking about as they had shared the reason with her on why they needed her help with Nevel. She blew out a breath and gave a weary expression as she commented, "Now that would have been interesting."

André's furled as he passed a quick glance towards Tori then back to Freddie to ask with his evident confusion, "Who are we talking about?"

The former Seattleite gave a partial smile as he answered the songsmith sitting between Tori and Cat, "Nevel, he wanted an interview with me." Freddie blew out a breath then glanced down at the Styrofoam cup he was holding by the lid. "He wanted to know the truth… about what happened to get me here and share it with the world."

Beck squinted his eyes and slightly shook his head as he asked, "Why?"

Freddie raised an eyebrow and shrugged a shoulder as he casually answered, "Viewers, he wants viewers for his site and he thinks an exclusive with me as to why I moved to L.A. will get them back."

The longer haired teenager began, "That would be…"

The tech-producer finished for the actor, "Quite embarrassing for a lot of people if the whole truth got out."

Beck leaned forward and rested his elbows on the blue girded table and asked with a curious tone, "Why would you care if it embarrassed them or want to spare their feelings after all the stuff that happened even if one of them _is_ Carly?"

"Because I'm going to try to forgive them… and trying to hurt them back doesn't accomplish that." Freddie snorted out a laugh, "And I know it isn't going to be easy."

Beck was not the only one that put on an expression of shock as the other teenagers around the table except for Jade and Tori were surprised from the revelation. The actor was the first to pick up from where he left off, "Wow, what prompted that?"

Freddie blew out a soft breath through his nose then with a slightly resigned voice, "Something Nevel… and a few others have pointed out over the last week or so… I spent my Saturday night doing a little brooding, a little soul searching…" He glanced to Jade and offered a small smile. "It was a good night."

Beck slightly frowned at the smile Freddie sent Jade's way, but brushed it away as he raised an eyebrow and cautiously asked, "I can see you forgiving Carly, but what about Sam?"

The brown eyed teenager frowned as he looked down at the table as he wondered why Beck could see that about Carly. His mind quickly swept it away as he figured that Beck was using his own experience with Jade to judge how it would eventually play out between him and Carly: his and Carly's shared romantic past would inexorably lead them to make peace, getting rid of any hard feelings between them and the possibility of being friends again as it had worked out in a similar fashion for the Canadian born and Jade. Freddie looked up and cautiously answered, "Sam's an entirely different category… but I'm going to have to at some point."

Trina asked with disbelief in her voice, "After all she's done? That gank sent you to the hospital that last time she was here and that was after all the other chizz you told us she put you through over the years. Has she ever showed any real remorse for what she's done?"

Freddie took a slow breath then met the older Vega's eyes. "No, but I didn't say it was going to be easy… but I have to do it for me."

Beck was quick to speak up, "What does that mean though? You forgive them then what? Would you go back to Seattle?" Beck held his breath as he looked to Jade to see her reaction to his question and Freddie's response. He tried to hide his surprise at seeing that Jade didn't react to the question other than maintain her small smile as she kept her focus on Freddie.

The group looked among one another to see how each other responded to the obvious ramifications and questions that would be brought up with Freddie forgiving those he left in Seattle and the possibility of him returning. Various expressions played on the individual teenagers' faces: Tori and André looks of shared apprehension, Cat wore a frown and didn't try to hide her sadness, Robbie looked confused, Rex wore a blank expression since of course he was a puppet and had no facial muscles to move and Trina looked annoyed.

Freddie gave a reassuring smile as he answered, "No, I wouldn't go back and forgiving them doesn't mean that. It just means that I can get rid of a lot of baggage from the last few years and be happy here." He slightly chuckled and looked down to his nearly empty tray then back to the group to comment, "It's not like any of you would want to get rid of me."

Rex spoke up with Robbie motioning his left hand for him towards Freddie, "Well…"

Jade deeply frowned as she stared at the puppet out of habit of thinking he was real followed by the rest of the group looking on to him with shock.

Robbie shouted apparently just as surprised as the rest of them, "Rex!"

Rex chuckled with his usual self confidence, "I'm just kidding. You people need to seriously chill out. Everyone knows Freddie's my main man."

Freddie snorted out with a smile as he shook his head. He glanced back to the rest of the group. "I know it was just put it up this morning, but I was wondering did any of you get a chance to see the clip with Jade and Tori we uploaded on TheSlap?"

André spoke up, "I started watching it this morning, but I didn't get to see it all; the three-D started janking with my eyes and class was about to start."

Freddie's mouth became a thin line and nodded along with the explanation. "Okay, I'll have to take another look at my camera…" Freddie grin as he picked up his thought, "…but it was in three-D on a normal screen?"

The songsmith let out a soft laugh as he replied, "Yep, it was three-D even on my PearPhone."

The tech-producer's smile turned into a grin. He whispered more to himself than to anyone else in the group of friends, "It worked."

Freddie was so caught up with the idea that his project had worked, that he didn't notice that Jade was beaming a smile towards him or feel that she rested her forearm and chin on his shoulder.

Tori shared a grin as she spoke, "Three-D on non-three-D ready screens? You just destroyed the three-D TV market. They'll probably all team up to pay you NOT to use it."

The brown eyed teenager let out a heart filled laugh then retorted, "The cat's already out of the bag for someone else to start working on it, but I wouldn't mind a nice check every month to sit on it in the meantime."

Cat's brow furled as she curiously asked, "Bag? I was in a bag?"

Jade answered patiently, "No Cat, the expression."

"Oh," she whispered then took a sip from her own drink.

Tori closed her empty tray after finishing her last bites of her lunch then spoke up to Freddie, "Hey, we have class in a few minutes and I need to swing by my locker."

"Right," he answered his classmate. Freddie turned in his seat and gave a brief kiss to Jade on her right cheek then stood up along with Tori and turned to step over the bench. He whispered down to her, "I'll see you at home."

The dark brunette smiled up to her departing boyfriend and privately reveled at him calling her place home. "Later," she whispered in return.

Tori called out as she and Freddie started heading back to the school, "Later guys."

Robbie spoke up next indicating that he needed to head for his class and the rest of them started breaking up and bidding their individual farewells.

Trina smiled at Beck as she stood up, but he didn't pay her any mind. He remained in his seat and discretely pulled out his pear shaped phone from his jean pocket and started typing away a text message with one hand.

André called out a few feet away from the table to catch Beck's attention, "You coming?"

Beck lifted his head and shouted, "Yeah, right behind you, just sending off a quick text."

The songwriter nodded his head in acknowledgment then headed off for his own class.

He looked at his phone as he finished up his message then hit the send button. He blew out a tired breath through his nose then commented idly, "I hope this news brightens your day."

TheSlap Computer Room  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Monday, October 24, 2011

The last bell for the day had rang about half an hour ago as the two Los Angeles immigrants, one from the north and the other from the south, were working editing Nevel's interview with Jade. Actually, by this time, Freddie was the one working on the editing as he leaning forward looking at the computer monitor, busily edited the three camera angles together for a seamless whole interview while Dusty was lazily leaning back in his chair just off to Freddie's right with his head propped up by his right hand just under his jaw line and elbow on the chair's armrest allowing the former Seattleite to take full control of what was becoming his baby.

The Southern teenager was getting a little bored just watching the experience editor work, so he reverted to the obvious thing to do in a situation like this: engage in small talk or in this case, not so small talk. "What was that all about outside of Allen's classroom?" he casually asked as if he was going to discuss something trivial.

"What?" Freddie barely acknowledged the question as he kept his focus on the screen.

He just grinned as he elaborated, "When I was meeting up with you after Allen's class? You were eyeing that short kid and his beanpole of a friend on your way out and it looked like you were ready to slug one of them or maybe both."

Freddie snorted out as he was irritated that the subject was brought up, "I was thinking about it."

Dusty grinned and asked with a bit of amusement in his voice, "May I ask why?"

Freddie pulled his attention away from the monitor and glanced towards the leaner teenager. He blew out a quick breath and answered, "Last week Jade overheard Corey, the shorter one, say something very… derogatory about her."

The leaner teenager led on, "As in…"

"She wouldn't tell me exactly what he said, but it was something he wanted to do with her… sexually."

Dusty tilted his head slightly down and frowned at the tech-producer. He narrowed his gaze as he asked slowly and in a delicate manner, "What do you plan to do about it?"

Freddie clenched his jaw tightly for a moment then whispered out as if he was disgusted with himself (which wasn't far from the truth) at what he was saying, "Nothing."

"Nothing?" the Southern teenager repeated with deeper than usual tone as if he had personally been offended by the answer.

The brown eyed teenager rolled his eyes as he retorted, "Jade said she'd handle it and make him sorry for it."

Dusty snorted out in disgust then replied with a firm voice, "I know she's your girlfriend and about her reputation of making people pay in the long run for crossing her and all that, but I say screw that waiting around mess. Go grab Harris, Van Cleef and maybe Shapiro and pretty boy and I'll get some of my boys and we'll take those two out behind the school and deal with them. I know the exact blind spots for the cameras." Dusty pulled away his hand from his cheek and quickly ran a hand over his mouth as he sat up in his chair then whispered, "Plus I know how to turn the cameras off for a few minutes… for maintenance purposes of course."

Freddie closed his eyes and shook his head slightly as that sound like a great idea to him. He commented dryly, "That sounds very tempting, but she said she would handle it and I have to respect her feelings and wishes."

Dusty smirked as he shook his head and broke eye contact for a moment then looked back with a pointed reminder rolling off his tongue, "Then I suggest that you remind her that she should take your feelings into consideration of being put on the sidelines in regards to defending her honor."

The tech-producer slightly frowned in response to the comment, but really couldn't argue against it because a big part of him agreed with the sentiment. He hadn't hesitated with Steven or with his warning against Sam when she threatened that it wasn't over between her and Jade.

The slightly taller teenager smirked as he leaned back in his rolling chair then shrugged a shoulder as he responded, "I'm just saying."

Freddie raised an eyebrow and reluctantly agreed, "Yeah, I hear what you're saying." He turned back to the computer to focus back on the task at hand.

After a few more minutes of splicing the desired pieces together, Freddie spoke up, "Who were you referring to as 'Pretty Boy'?"

Dusty gave a light chuckle as he responded, "You know… your girlfriend's ex? What? You don't think he wouldn't want to help teach them a lesson?"

Freddie cocked his head to the side as he kept his focus on the screen. "It's not that, I just never heard him described that way… in what sounded like an unflattering tone."

"That's probably because you're either in love with his good looks and hair or no one has the courage to say it," Dusty responded with a corner of his mouth raised.

Freddie's brow furled as he asked, "You don't like him?"

Dusty waved him off as he casually answered, "I don't know him well enough to like him _or_ to dislike him; just that I don't respect him as a man and _that is saying something from where I come from_."

The Seattle native blinked with confusion as he asked, "Why?"

The slimmer teen nodded his head back and forth to the side a few times then answered, "Well… after getting around to watching a few of his and West's older Slap videos together along with plenty of others after I joined TheSlap to double check if they were appropriate to be on the site, I saw that someone should have taught him some manners when it comes to how to treat one's girlfriend, especially the lesson of when a girl tells you not to touch her, you don't touch her."

Freddie frowned as he instantly recalled TheSlap video of Beck giving Jade a nuggie after she had repeatedly told him she didn't want one and to stop, but he refused to listen to her and continued holding her down to give her nuggies. Several other videos came to mind afterward where he talked down to her like he attempted to do during the celebratory dinner at Wok Star from getting back from Yerba. He had remained silent about what happened in the videos after viewing them between moving in with the Wests and the start of school as they were in the past and apparently settled problems between the former couple.

He was pulled out of his thoughts with Dusty continuing, "Since he's something like a friend to you, you might want to let him know if it ever comes up in conversation that if he touches Cat _without_ her permission like that, I'm going to hurt him… very badly and _not_ give him the consideration I would give another man in a straight up fight."

Freddie eyes widened at the threat.

Dusty smiled coyly as he asked, "What? Just because she's my ex doesn't mean I don't care about her or her wellbeing."

Freddie blew out a breath and joked, "You dated for less than a week."

Dusty broke into a heart filled laughing fit for a few moments that pulled a smile out from Freddie watching the happy teenager. The leaner teenager took a few seconds to catch his breath then answered as he thought back on his brief relationship with Cat, "But it was a fantastic few days and she is a sweetheart."

Freddie slightly shook his head and stated, "I can't argue with that."

"I hope not or we might have to take this outside," Dusty finished with a laugh.

The tech-producer joined him in the laughter then as he calmed his breath, looked back to the monitor. As the teenager was finishing up his first edit of the video, he asked his companion, "What did you think about Jade and Tori's clip?"

Dusty shrugged a shoulder seeing that Freddie had enough talking about relationships and the drama surrounding them. "Oh, I don't watch stuff in three-D. I'm afraid it'll mess up my eyes, so I didn't see it. It's the same reason that I set my PearPhone on the lowest volume when wearing the earbuds; I'm afraid of losing any of my hearing."

"André said he saw part of it on his PearPhone, but he had to get to class and it started messing with his eyes, so he didn't get to finish seeing the rest."

Dusty slightly frowned as he responded, "I wonder if anyone else is having that reaction…" The Southern teenager lifted a hand and waved off his idea as he spoke, "There's always a handful that don't react well to three-D and it probably has something to do with him watching it on the phone. I guess you won't have to wait too long to find out what people think when people really start looking at it later this afternoon and tonight. People on the East coast have probably already seen it since they're three hours ahead of us and been out of school all that time then there are your international fans you have to take into account…"

"Probably right about André; they put warnings on three-D movies anyway just for that reason. Heck, I put one in at the beginning of the clip. I should know something by tonight on how everyone liked it." Freddie looked back to the keyboard tapped a few keys to bring the first edit up on the High-Definition television hanging on the opposite wall. "Okay, let's see how this first edit goes…"

Asphalt Café  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Tuesday, October 25, 2011<p>

Jade held her book bag strap tight against her right shoulder as she hurried out a few minutes after the last bell through the side exit of the school that led into the Asphalt Café. Subconsciously she knew she really didn't have to rush because Freddie wouldn't leave without her, but he hadn't waited for her by her locker or his locker after their fourth period. Ordinarily she would have found it only a little bit odd and nothing to really be all that concerned over, but unlike yesterday with everything going great for her boyfriend, today had been disastrous and she was desperate to find her brown eyed boy.

Comments had flooded about her and Tori's clip starting late last night and all during the day complaining about how the three-D effect had scrambled their sight and calling him every name under the sun for it. Freddie had gone to bed without speaking to her about it, silent on the way to school this morning and from what she could tell, had avoided almost everyone between classes and when lunch rolled around, he remained completely silent as he ate his lunch. If the situation couldn't get any worse, she had heard that there was a near fight that broke out of some students wanting to show their dissatisfaction with Freddie. She had heard that he had to lay one out to get the rest to back off. The final bit of news that sent her scrambling to find him was that she had bumped into Lane just before reaching her locker.

She stepped out from under the second level of the café over her head and spotted Freddie sitting on the blue bench of the group's usual lunch table that no one ever sat. His back was turned and he was facing outward from the table and apparently leaning forward. She picked up her pace and walked around the table to stop at his left side.

He didn't look up as he remained leaning forward with his forearms resting on his knees and looking out over the parking lot. He clenched his right hand into a fist, relaxed his grip then flexed it tightly again. She recognized the near nervous tick from where he had punched Steven and realized instantly that it was true that he had at least punched one person. She was just grateful that he hadn't been suspended or anything else apparently happening to him for it.

The dark brunette cautiously whispered out, "Hey."

"Hey," he answered barely above a whisper with an even expression on his face.

She took a slow breath then had a seat next to him. He remained silent and didn't physically acknowledge her presence. "Lane told me you skipped your meeting today and refused to show up when he called for you while you were in class."

Freddie shrugged a shoulder and refused to meet her eyes. "I didn't feel like talking to him today. I've already been _opened up_ enough for today."

Jade nodded along and glanced with her peripheral vision that his flexing and relaxing of his right picked up the pace as he spoke to her.

He closed his eyes and whispered out, "I didn't work…"

The dark brunette took a soft breath then answered in a voice she hoped was comforting, "You knew that it might not work the first time. That's why we did the clip on Sunday."

He kept his eyes closed and softly shook his head. He turned his head to face her and meet her sad eyes. In a hushed tone he countered, "It's not that. I got it to display in three-D, that part worked, but it just janks up everyone's eyes. If it was something technical that was wrong then I could probably figure out how to get it right, but that's not it. I'm not an optometrist; I have absolutely no idea what is causing people's eyes to react that way, least long find a way to fix it."

She looked down and gently laid a hand onto his left forearm. "I'm sorry."

He clenched his jaw tight along with his eyes as he felt the comforting touch on his bare arm as he had his sleeve rolled up past his elbow. He whispered, "The only person who didn't get their eyes messed up was my mom's therapist's daughter."

"What?" Jade asked as she was jarred from the shift in conversation.

Freddie opened his eyes and looked back at his girlfriend. "I got a call from my mom after lunch. She told me that his daughter had some kind of rare eye condition where she had to wear these sophisticated and cumbersome, almost monstrosity glasses just to be able to see straight. Her father says that she can see absolutely fine now after seeing the clip. He told my mom that the American Optometric Association wants to know if they can use it to try to treat the other dozen or so people that have it."

Jade blinked and took in a slow breath. She spoke softly with a bit of apprehension as if she was unsure of what she really heard, "Freddie, you gave a girl her eyesight back."

It was Freddie's turn to be confused as he asked, "What?"

Jade gave him a patient smile as she started comprehending what she was thinking. She brought a hand up to rest on his shoulder and whispered softly as a smile played on her lips, "Freddie, stop and think for a moment. You gave a girl her eyesight back… you made the blind _see_. I don't think any of us can really comprehend how much you've done for her. Even if it only works on her and no one else, that's something to be proud of and what you've given her far more valuable than whatever you could have reaped from it working."

Freddie took a slow breath as he looked into those greenish-blue eyes. He wore a look of sheer disbelief as he whispered out in a near reverent tone, "Wow…"

Jade let off a soft giggle, "I bet that was the same thing she said when she was able to see without her glasses."

He dipped his head down slightly as he slightly blushed, "That kind of puts things into perspective,"

Jade beamed him a warm smile then gave him a soft verbal jibe, "No pun intended?"

The Seattle native snorted out a laugh then turned slightly as to wrap his right arm around her waist and pull her close. He gave her a brief chaste kiss on the lips then looked her in the eyes. "No pun intended… thanks."

She slid her left arm up over his chest and around his neck to lock with her other hand that moved off of his shoulder. "You're welcome… I believe you can still make it work. It's just a bigger setback than you thought that's all, but what a great failure."

Freddie grinned as he replied, "You're right, what a great failure."

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Jade and Freddie entered through the kitchen entrance from the garage about an hour after leaving school. The pair had decided to celebrate Freddie's 'failure' (and Jade's attempt to continue to cheer up her boyfriend) by going to Jet Brew and indulging with some high-end coffee and smoothie and just spending some quiet time away from everything as they had done during the summer workshop.

The pair cut through the kitchen and living room to head for their respective rooms, but Jade stopped with Freddie nearly bumping into his girlfriend's back with the sudden stop when she saw two men and a woman in business suits sitting with her mother in the living room. Her mother was sitting on the couch with a younger man sitting on her left side as an older gentleman sat cattycorner and across from her mother in one of the matching chairs with apparently a woman assistant standing beside him. The dark brunette was surprised because her mother usually didn't bring colleagues into their home, but kept business strictly out of the house.

One of the gentlemen, a tall man with a hint of gray around his temples, stood up and smiled to Freddie. He approached and offered his hand. "Hello Mister Benson, I'm Mister Hughes. I represent—"

"What's going on?" Freddie quickly asked Mrs. West with a worried expression on his face as he wasn't patient enough to let the man finish.

Mrs. West stood up and passed a quick glance towards Mister Hughes then answered, "Mister Hughes is from the Pear Company and they'd like to talk to you about your three-D technology."

"What?" Freddie asked with a hint of surprise.

The Pear Company representative answered, "We are interesting in possibly developing your project."

"Oh… ah… that's nice, but I can't talk to you right now. My last experience with the Daka Company was not a pleasant one until I got myself a lawyer."

"And that is why I'm here," the second, younger gentleman about Spencer's age Freddie guessed, stood up from his seat.

"And who are you?"

He quickly answered, "I'm your lawyer… at least for the moment. You can call me Ben."

Freddie immediately looked over Mrs. West for some kind of explanation, but he spoke for himself, "This lady and gentleman are quite serious about obtaining some rights on developing on your idea and Mrs. West knew you were going to need some kind of representation and called me since we've worked together several times in the past as we work for the same company. I specialize in representing people's intellectual rights, but of course I'm just here for you for this meeting in case you would want to obtain some other representation after talking with them. I'm here as a professional courtesy to Mrs. West."

Ruby spoke up with a reassuring tone, "Yes, he's here to prevent them from stealing your idea and you not getting a dime for it."

The accusation did not sit well with Mister Hughes. "Now Mrs. West, I am offended that you would—"

The dark haired beauty turned her head and stared straight into the man's eyes. "Do not insult my intelligence. I pegged you just as soon as you walked into my home. You'd rob Freddie blind if you could get away with it so you wouldn't have to pay him any royalties since poor Jobs has passed on just three weeks ago, because you know he wouldn't allow you to do such a thing if he were living."

Jade whistled from her mother's verbal cut down of the Pear Company representative.

Freddie spoke up, "I'd hate to point to the elephant in the room since it's probably going to do me far more harm than good—"

"Then don't—" Ben snapped out of instinct.

The brown eyed teenager ignored him and finished, "It doesn't work without messing up everyone's eyes and I've read where you're developing a three-D projector to compete with the other three-D TV manufactures; aren't you afraid that this will shut the market down?"

"Of course you are right that it doesn't work _now_ Mister Benson, but we have the resources and the technical expertise to bring to bear to solve the problem and about our own future plans to get into the TV business… what I can comment on is that we can still abort the project if necessary and avoid a market crash if this technology bares fruit. However, we're interested in the consumer market of shooting in three-D. Imagine if we can get it to work and scale it down to put in a future PearPhone so it can have the ability to shoot video in three-D? We couldn't keep the phones on the shelves… and you getting a little piece of the pie every time one of them leaves the store."

Freddie rolled his eyes as he commented, "I can imagine since I work at a Pear Store."

"Yes, we are aware of that."

Ben spoke up, "I would like to point out that he did this work completely independent of any influence from you company, so don't you dare try to claim any kind of right to his work or try to threaten him with his job to get him to sign with you."

"I wouldn't dream of such a thing."

"Right…" the younger man slowly dragged out.

Before any kind of legalese could break out between the two men, Freddie spoke up, "I need a moment with Mrs. West."

Ruby quickly walked past Ben and Mister Hughes and went to the kitchen with Freddie and her daughter. Once they were safely in the kitchen away from prying ears Freddie spoke up, "This was the last thing I expected today and I don't know what to do."

The raven haired beauty smiled at him and answered, "You don't have to do anything. That's why I have Ben here. You don't have to agree to anything at the moment. They can't bully you to agree on anything or pull a fast one on you."

Freddie blew out a quick breath and shook his head then whispered out desperately, "But it doesn't work; it may never work even with all the resources they could throw behind it."

"Maybe so, but I think you should make them make it worth your wild so you don't go to somewhere else or trying to release it yourself."

Freddie took a deep breath and nodded his head.

Mrs. West gave him a reassuring smile. "We can talk to them right now if you want or I can send them out and let you think about what you want to do and find another lawyer to represent you."

Freddie nodded at the suggestions and looked down at the linoleum floor as he thought about his options. He only thought for a few seconds when the doorbell rang. Mrs. West blew out an annoyed breath and rolled her eyes. "Give me a minute," she requested as she turned away from the teenagers and headed for the front door.

The couple didn't wait long as they heard Mrs. West called out from the foyer, "Ah Freddie? It's the creator of Galaxy Wars and he wants to talk to you."

Freddie blinked and passed a glance toward the dark brunette and whispered, "Oh my God…"

Jadelyn "Jade" West's Room  
>West Residence<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Tuesday, October 25, 2011<p>

The day had been an all around stressful one for the former Seattleite, for good and bad, with the Pear Company and the creator of Galaxy Wars making their offers several hours ago, so Jade had the perfect stress relieving solution: a couple of rounds of Gears of Wars.

The couple sat on the floor in front of flat screen and blazed away at their enemies as they frantically worked their individual controllers. Freddie had been truthful when he said that Jade had got him hooked on the game and over the months he had became quite good at all the Gear of Wars games.

Jade laughed as she saw Freddie put down an alien on the screen through his intense concentration and wrapped up the level with the last kill. The dark brunette commented with a cheerful tone, "This wasn't how you thought the day would end?"

Freddie sat the controller in his lap then turned his head to look at her and answered with a soft smile, "Nope, not at all."

Her tone became somber as she spoke, "You deserve it you know… after all the hard work you've put in over the years. You should finally get recognized."

He gave a slight nod then answered with a conspiratorial whisper, "Thank you… and the hefty royalty checks don't hurt either."

The couple shared a soft laugh at that additional benefit of his filming method. The laugher died off a few moments later and the pair fell into a comfortable silence.

Freddie shifted to turn to face her as he remained sitting cross-legged on her floor. He blew out a nervous breath then started with a bit of trepidation, "Ah, I know this might be out of the blue, but about Corey and Victor… you said you would handle it and I can respect that but… it still doesn't sit well with me."

Jade slightly frowned and her brow furled with confusion. "Wait, you respect me doing it, but you'd really prefer that I let them get away with it?"

"_NO_, the complete opposite, but… the situation came up in conversation with Dusty yesterday after he saw me glaring at them when I was leaving Mister Allen's class and he made a good point that I should be telling you about my feelings on the matter and that you should be taking them into account as I'm taking yours into account. I don't like sitting on the sideline and having to swallow down wanting to say anything every time I see them in class."

She diverted her eyes down and gave a slight nod. She thought back to that night when she was attending to his hand after he punched out Steven at Karaoke Dokie and on what her mother had said when Freddie got his car: don't take away his pride. She spoke with a tender voice, "You want to defend me once again?"

He gave a timid smile as he whispered, "How could you really ask me to do any different? Even if I wasn't you boyfriend?"

The pale actress' slight frown turned into a devious smile as looked up to meet his eyes. "No… I really can't, I can I? So… do you want in on what I'm thinking about doing?"

Freddie grinned as he answered, "What do you have in mind?"

Asphalt Café  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Wednesday, October 26, 2011<p>

The Hollywood Arts crew was once again around their usual table enjoying their lunch under the California sun. However, the conversation shared among the group was overcast in contrast to the slightly chilly, but pleasant day as they could barely maintain small talk and occasionally throw a sympathetic look towards Freddie when they hoped he wasn't looking.

Apparently Cat couldn't take it anymore and whispered to her handsome friend, "I'm sorry that your video didn't work."

Freddie finished his sip from his straw then chuckled out, "It's alright Cat; everything is working out for the best."

Tori stopped in mid-chew of her food as she turned to André to share her perplexed expression. The rest of the group appeared just as confused with his answer.

He leaned forward and whispered, "I didn't want to mention it until all the details were worked out, but I have the Pear Company and the creator of Galaxy Wars negotiating on how much each of them gets the right to develop my project. I am going to be very well off financially for a very long time even if they can't ever get it to work without messing with people's eyes."

"What?" the group at the table asked in unison.

Freddie broke out with a short laugh then eagerly answered them, "The Pear Company wants it for consumer market and Gregory wants to develop it for the film industry. They want to try to put it into a PearPhone one day and Gregory maybe wants to use it for the next Galaxy Wars movie."

Robbie hated to be the bearer of bad news and it showed on his face as he pointed out with a sad tone, "But it doesn't work?"

The brown eyed teenager wore a slight smirk as he answered with a confident tone, "Maybe not, but as they both pointed out, they got all the resources in the world over me to try to solve it. I honestly don't have a clue on what to do to fix the problem other than maybe trial and error."

Tori laughed out with her shout, "This is great!"

The brown eyed teenager grinned. "Yep and it gets better. Gregory has even offered me a personal summer internship with him at Skyhopper Ranch after graduation,"

Trina asked with a disbelieving tone, "You're on a first name basis with the creator of Galaxy Wars?"

"Yes I am," Freddie smiled confidently.

Rex spoke up, "He's just doing that to get you to sign with him. You know, playing on the fact that you're a fan."

Freddie gave a nod to acknowledge Rex's point. "Maybe so or maybe he sees my potential and genuinely wants to help me, but either way, _he's the one_ who is going to have to pay for the privilege of working with me."

André laughed, "Wow, you're already set after graduation."

Freddie motioned his right hand and responded with a cheerful tone, "Hey, just following your example mister 'I already have a professional record deal while still in high school and going to be a big time musician before I'm nineteen'." The songsmith laughed along with his friend as Freddie continued, "I'm simply going to be able to buy my way into any college I want now—"

"And to Hell with Sam's sabotage," Jade spoke up with a devious smirk on her face.

Freddie didn't get a chance to respond as Beck spoke up looking through some of his hair as the wind blew it in his face, "So I'm guessing it's UCLA for you too? Most of us naturally were going to go there after graduation if we didn't already have some acting gig or…" motioning towards André, "a record deal."

The former Seattleite shrugged a shoulder and replied casually, "I haven't really thought about specific colleges since finding out about Sam being behind me not getting to go to my summer camp and all the other fallout from everything. I've really been just kind of living in the moment and taking it day by day since I walked out of Troubled Waters and adjusting to quite frankly my new life. I think I'm finally in a position to really start thinking about the future again and start planning for it." He turned his head slightly to meet Jade's eyes and smiled. "UCLA sounds great?"

Jade returned with a bright smile of her own.

Beck hid his expression under his wind blown hair and sipping from his bottle of water.

TheSlap Computer Room  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>3:47 P.M., Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Dusty leaned back with the chair he was sitting in with his right palm braced against the right armrest as he looked with a smile onto the dark brunette with blue streaks in her hair. "So you're happy with this?"

Jade was sitting beside him at the desk in front of one of the computer monitors having just watched the final edit of her interview with Nevel. This had been the first time she had seen the interview as Freddie hadn't done any of the editing at home (as if he really had any time or focus to work on it over the last two nights), but she had asked him about what he thought about the interview and how the editing had gone so far. He would tell her the interview was fantastic, but remained vague on the editing. Since it was entirely in her hands, she figured that he didn't want to unduly influence her about the edit with his opinion especially since she was told he had been the one that did most of the editing. She also figured that was why Freddie picked today to have the final edit revealed to her since he was in the main music room with André for their usual Wednesday afternoon guitar lesson and he wouldn't influence her opinion if he was with her.

The pale actress smiled to the Southern teenager and answer with a grateful tone, "I think you've done an incredible job. Thank you."

The lean teenager's smile turned into a partial grin with the lifting of the right corner of his mouth. "Well you're welcome. Benson did want it to be perfect for you. I know he'll be happy that you like it. So I can send this off to Pappermen?"

She gave him a slight nod as she answered, "Yes, you can send this to him."

The taller teenager blew out a breath as he turned to the keyboard and mouse. "Now we just have to see if he lives up to his end," he commented as he went through the mundane process of sending the web-critic the file.

"He'll keep to his end," Jade responded confidently with a smirk playing on her lips.

He didn't take his eyes off the screen as he retorted with a dry tone, "I hope so for his sake. If you would pardon my French, I warned him that he was a dumb little fuck if he thought about screwing with either of you and that I didn't doubt that Benson would chase him up to Seattle to settle it. 'Cause I'll tell you what I told him, that's not the same Benson that I've watched for years on iCarly."

Jade took in a slow and gave a slight nod of her head to acknowledge his point.

Once he finished sending off the file, Dusty leaned back in his chair and faced the singer with an even expression. "If I may ask, how's Benson? I know yesterday was kind of rough for him."

Jade thought she at least owed him a little bit of an answer, but she wouldn't go into any of the detail like Freddie had with the others, so she thought she'd give him just enough to relieve any concern that he might genuinely have with her answer, "He's doing a lot better than yesterday."

"That's good to hear, especially after watching that near fight he almost got into."

"You were there?" Jade asked with a mixture of eagerness and concerned since she hadn't learned the full story about what had happened.

Dusty wasn't blind to the concern in the pale teenager's bluish eyes, so he quickly explained in the hopes to reassure her, "I was passing by on my way to class and saw what was about to go down. There was a nice little crowd and I thought I was going to have to jump in with Harris, but some moron took a swing on Benson before either of us could do anything. Benson… he put the guy down hard. He was a big son-of-a-bitch too. At least everyone knows now that he's one of the alpha males of the school and I seriously doubt that anyone is going to ever pick a fight with him, so I think that's one good thing that's came out of it."

"You would have jumped in to help Freddie with that mob?"

Dusty smiled coyly and answered with a bit of smugness to his voice, "Honor would have accepted no less."

Jade broke into a soft laugh and shook her head for a few moments then commented, "You are a throwback."

"Guilty as charged ad quite proud of it," he answered confidently.

The blue streaked hair teenager took a few calming breaths then focused her attention back onto her schoolmate. She slightly tilted her head to the side and started with a calm voice, "I know you talked to Freddie about Corey and Victor—"

The webmaster frowned and straightened up in his seat as he narrowed his eyes on the dark brunette and interrupted her with a challenging voice, "I stand by what I said: he shouldn't necessarily wait for you to execute one of your little plans, but go get Harris and the others while I get some of my buddies and we go teach those two about how they need to watch their mouths… but he's respecting your feelings about it and I think you should at least consider his feelings on that matter. Heck, I saw that video of him putting Carson down at Karaoke Dokie. He has no problem throwing down."

Jade's eyes widened as Freddie had failed to mention that part of his conversation with Dusty. "Yeah well… I actually wanted to thank you. I wouldn't have realized how much it was bothering him if you hadn't said something to him and that's why he's joining in on my plan."

The older teenager's challenging posture immediately shifted into one of a more relaxed stance as he answered with a bit of hesitation, "Oh… okay, ah… you're welcome. I'm glad I could help?"

Jade gave him a coy smile as she asked with a mischievous tone, "Would you care to help a little more as in getting involved with a plan to defend a lady's honor?"

Dusty chuckled and smiled back in just as much of a coy manner as he answered, "What do you have in mind my lady?"

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Thursday, October 27, 2011

Corey blew out a tired breath as he left his locker and headed for the Black Box Theater. Thursday was his favorite day, being that tomorrow was Friday and it was the day that the Hollywood Art dancers would practice. Of course there were male dancers, but he easily ignored them to look at the very fine ladies dances. It was generally accepted that Northridge had the prettiest girls, but he knew that wasn't true after watching a few practices of the dancers.

As the sandy blonde teenager turned to round the corner just in front of the drink machines and the janitor's closet, he stopped and noticed that Jade was standing at the end of the short hallway just in front of the wall with the signatures of passed seniors. She was leaning against the right corner and looking down at her PearPhone. He let his eyes roam up and down her several times, noticing how well her short black skirt showed off her hose covered legs and her V-neck shirt allowed a nice view from his vantage point of her cleavage and the soft swell of the top of her breasts.

She apparently finished sending what looked like a text message then pushed off the corner. The dark brunette caught sight of Corey from the corner of her eye and spared him a small smile then turned the corner to head down the hallway to the theater.

Corey blinked for a moment at seeing her smile at him, but quickly brushed the confusion away and followed her down the hall and around the corner. He caught up with her a few seconds later as she had stopped at the main entrance to the theater.

Jade looked over her shoulder and winked at Corey then slipped into the Black Box Theater.

Corey cracked a grin as he followed the pale actress into the theater by slipping through the door behind her. He slightly frowned as he lost sight of her for a few moments as surprisingly the lights were turned down low in the theater. So low in fact that once he reacquired sight of Jade, he could barely see the dark brunette standing in front of the closed curtains.

Apparently her eyes had adjusted to the dim light faster as Jade smiled directly at the shorter teenager and greeted him with a seductive tone, "Hello Corey."

The shorter teenager put on the smoothest smile possible, but it didn't last long. A spotlight shined down on the teenager, blinding him from the sudden brightness. He instantly turned to look over his shoulder and up to see who was operating the light. Sinjin was up on the catwalk and operating the controls to shine the light down on him. He suddenly turned to look at Jade and his muscles instantly seized up as his primordial instincts were screaming that he had just been led into a trap and Jade was the predator about to eat him from the smile she was giving him.

He looked to the exit to the left side of the stage but saw with the ambient light the boy he recognized as the one in charge of TheSlap with a look of disgust on his face and directing it at him as he blocked the exit. The shorter teen instantly looked to his right for the other exit, but saw it being blocked by the dreads wearing musician he had seen perform several times. He had his arms crossed over his chest and stared just as coldly at him.

Corey's anxiety started rising as he felt that he was trapped. His fear was starting to cloud his mind so much he didn't think about turning around and trying to make a break for it the way he and Jade originally entered the theater.

He didn't get the chance to try to clear his mind enough to think that far ahead as Jade spoke up with a deceivingly sweet voice, "You wanted me on my knees; I have a better idea: Why don't you get on yours?"

Corey's facial expression turned from one of fear to that of confusion for an instant before he felt an instant sharp pain behind the back of his left knee and causing it to bend and drop him to his knees. He threw out his hands to catch himself before hitting his head on the floor. He hissed out as his knees and palms impacted the theater floor.

Corey started breathing faster as he looked up to see who had kicked him and causing his joint to unlock. He instinctively swallowed down with a quite audible sound as he stared up to a pair of brown, but very cold eyes.

Freddie wore a near perfect mask of impassiveness other than the stare from his eyes and the slightest of disgusting frowns. The taller teenager spoke barely above a whisper in a cool and deliberate tone, "Usually this is the part where I would beat you to a pulp for the way you spoke about my girlfriend and everyone says you threw the first punch, but…" Freddie turned his eyes away to look at Jade. Corey couldn't help but turned his head to follow the more muscular teen's gaze.

Jade smirked then turned to walk to her right towards Dusty on the left side of the theater from Corey and Freddie's point-of-view. As she walked, the curtain started parting and keeping pace with the dark brunette's stride.

As the curtain parted, it revealed Christine, Ryder Daniel's ex girlfriend Robbie tried to impress during his makeover, but instead found out about the former senior's MO about advancing his grade on the talent of the girl he would date at that moment, standing in the center of the stage with her arms crossed under her chest and smiling darkly at him along with the rest of the Hollywood Arts dancers surrounding her. The rest of the dancers looked just as pissed.

Freddie leaned over to whisper directly into Corey's left ear, "I'm a gentleman, so ladies first… bye Corey." The brown eyed teenager turned and started out the back of the theater followed by Jade, Dusty and André. As the quartet exited the theater, they started hearing Corey's screams and begging them to stop.

The quartet exited the theater and met down the hall and around the corner in front of the drink machines. Freddie wrapped an arm around Jade's shoulder as the pair looked to André and Dusty. The songsmith was the first to speak with a nervous laugh, "I guess he'll learn his lesson about whatever he said about you and watching them."

Jade tilted her head to the side to rest on Freddie's shoulder. She nervously smiled at her friend as she replied, "Sometimes the best plans for revenge are the simplest and straightforward ones… thanks André… for kind of going out on a limb for me without… having to know everything."

He glanced to Freddie for a second then snorted out nervously as he looked to Jade, "Well… what are friends for?"

The dark brunette's nervous smiled turned into a comforting one at the confirmation of having friends she really could count on.

As André was about to head on his way out, Freddie pulled away from Jade to quickly lean over and whisper to his guitar tutor in private, "Thanks man. I really appreciate you for backing us."

He cracked a grin as he replied, "Not a problem."

The quartet suddenly split into pairs and flattened themselves against opposite walls as Corey ran passed them in only his boxer shorts shouting for help. The next moment the dance team came into view around the corner, hot on the heels of the guy that had been perving on them for only God knows how long.

Dusty crossed his arms over his chest and stepped away from the wall. He shook his head as he looked at the last trailing girl and laughed, "I think he got off light. It wouldn't have been pretty if they really wanted to hurt him."

Freddie asked curiously, "What?"

The Southern teen grinned as he turned his head to look at the couple. "I mean they really aren't trying to hurt him or he'd really be in trouble."

The pair still looked perplexed with his answer, so with a patient smile as he continued, "Have either of you seen two girls go at it? I don't mean that silly slap fighting nonsense or that fake stuff you and Vega did for 'The Wood', but a real knock down, drag out fight, with both of them trying to kill each other?"

The couple's eyes went wide in shock with Jade trying to mouth something, but each remained silent as he picked up, "I have back in Carolina several times and when I went to Northridge and let me tell you something: _they are not pretty_. My advice for both of you: if you ever really get into a fight with a girl, you better be willing to kill her to stop her or she'll do worse than kill you."

Freddie raised an eyebrow as he asked, "Worse?" He didn't doubt his classmate's word as he of course had first hand experience with some of the things Sam had done to him just short of killing him.

Dusty snorted out a laugh, "Yeah, worse. You know guys; they'll throw a few punches and settle it pretty quickly if they're not really out for the other's blood, but girls? Girls will _maim you_, as in rip your hair out, try to gouge your eyes, and try to tear your ears off. Girl fights are out and out brutal and you better be willing to put them down just for self-preservation."

The couple glanced at each other and made eye contact. They instantly picked up on what the other was thinking then turned back to look at Dusty. Jade was the first to speak with a hesitant and broken voice, "Yeah, I'll… I'll remember that."

He gave them a soft smile then a slight nod of his head. He seemed to turn his attention to something behind Jade's shoulder. He shifted his eyes between what he was looking at and the couple as he spoke, "Well, you two lovebirds have a nice afternoon and I will see you around." He gave a nod to André and acknowledged, "Harris." The lean teenager walked past them and Jade spared a glance over her shoulder to see that he was heading for Christine who was giving him soft smile as she stood off just to pass the corner to be seen.

Asphalt Café Parking Lot  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Thursday, October 27, 2011<p>

Jade looked out to nowhere in particular as she rested her head on Freddie's left shoulder with his arm wrapped around her waist as the pair just took a few moments to themselves sitting on the end of his Charger. She hated breaking the comforting silence between them, but she thought this was the best time to answer the question he had been waiting on for an answer for nearly two weeks. She softly whispered, "I know it's been a crazy week, but I never got around to answering your question."

"What question would that be?"

Her lips broke into a soft smile. "Asking me out to the Halloween dance."

Freddie's face lit up as he had forgot about the weekend dance over the course of the week with everything occurring. He eagerly asked, "So? Your answer is…"

She lifted her head off of his shoulder and met his eyes with a playful smile. "Yes, I will go with you to the Halloween dance.

Freddie threw up his arm right arm in the air and hissed out with glee, "Yes."

Jade closed her lips tight trying to hold back the laughter threatening to spill out of her mouth at watching his antics. The amalgamated word of 'adorkable' came to mind, but she didn't want it any other way, especially when his reaction made her feel wanted.

He looked back at his slightly embarrassed girlfriend and asked, "What time should I pick you up?" He knew it was an odd question since they lived in the same house, but it was a logical one to ask her.

Jade smiled then leaned over to rub her nose against Freddie's cheek. "I'll let you know."

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Guest Starring Dawn Morrow as Christine<p> 


	22. Chapter 22

Author's Note: Hello my dear readers, I hope you've had a nice week. Short on words, so I'll go ahead and motion you to the story. Please enjoy.

Chapter 22

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Friday, October 28, 2011

Jade and Freddie were both relieved for their own respective reasons that the weekend had finally arrived as Freddie pulled the Charger up the Wests' driveway and through the opened garage door. Today had been pleasant enough with their individual classes and Sikowitz's class without any complaints. Actually it was quite an enjoyable day for the pair as Freddie had aced a quiz in his morning science class and Jade found out from Christine that Corey was actually suspended for a few days for repeatedly spying on the dance team. The dark brunette wore a particularly satisfying smile after hearing that Helen didn't believe his story about being set up by Freddie to be chased around the school in his underwear with the dance team on his heels or if she did, she didn't really care.

As the car settled into its far left spot with reference to the door to the kitchen, Jade relaxed back in the passenger seat and blew out a soft breath. She just wanted to go inside and relax with a nice cup of coffee and Freddie by her side, but of course he had to rush right back out to the PearStore for his Friday afternoon/evening shift. She understood his need to work, but sometimes it just bothered her that their Friday evenings together didn't start until nearly eleven or later and wouldn't last that long since he had to be up early for his first shift that Saturday morning. She had tried to look on the brighter side of the situation; they weren't constantly together and gave them each their own individual 'me' time during the weekend. The last thing they needed to develop from situation of staying under the same roof was them becoming co-dependent with one another.

She wouldn't let her mixed feelings show this afternoon after the rough week he had so far as she didn't want him to feel any guilt for having to work, so once the car was fully in park, she exited quickly with him behind her and headed for the kitchen entrance. Usually he wouldn't park, but just dropped her off in front of the house and be on his way, however he needed to stop by and grab a light snack before he started his shift. Jade took the lead in entering through the kitchen entrance and found Mrs. West leaning against the island in the center of the kitchen with the cordless phone held up against her ear. They both stopped in their tracks as they overheard her end of the conversation.

The raven haired woman had her head slightly down looking down on the light brown countertop with her raven hair falling on either side of her face and blocking her features from the teenage couples eyes. However, it wasn't hard to guess that her hair was covering a smile as she happily spoke to the other person, "So I'll fly up on Thursday." She snorted out a laugh a few seconds later after hearing the other person speak and replied, "God, how long has it been since we had dinner at the Space Needle? Five? Six years?" She paused as she listened to the other's response. "Oh okay… I will see you then. Stay safe. Bye." She paused for a few more seconds then pressed the end call button.

Freddie asked curiously he asked as he made his way on the other side of the island and to the refrigerator, "You're flying up to Seattle?"

She stood up and brushed some hair behind her right ear and gave a lopsided grin as she answered, "Yes, because that was Steven."

"Oh," Freddie acknowledged with a surprised tone as he stopped in front of and opened the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water and a bagged snack he had fixed before leaving this morning.

The grin turned into a smile as Ruby explained, "Steven's birthday is next week and he's able to take some leave, so… he's going home for a few days to celebrate his birthday with Spencer and Carlotta and I'm going to fly up for a day or two to meet up with him, so… you two are going to have the house to yourselves, probably for the entire weekend."

Freddie looked over his shoulder to Jade as he closed the refrigerator door and she looked back with a bit of surprise.

Ruby grinned as she interrupted the couple's nonverbal exchange, "Don't trash the house too bad."

Jade snorted out and shook her head as she crossed her arms, "Real funny mom."

The blue eyed woman let out a soft chuckle as she walked around the island to the opposite wall towards the living room to replace the phone receiver.

Freddie twisted open the top of his bottled water while clenching his bag with his middle, ring and pinky finger then took a quick sip. After swallowing the cool liquid, he commented, "I know Carly's going to be happy to see the Colonel. She doesn't get to see him a lot… I know she misses him even if she doesn't say anything or show it. That should be a real treat for her and Spencer."

Mrs. West spoke softly with a poignant tone as she turned to face the former Seattleite, "No she doesn't get to see him a lot and I know she misses him… and it goes both ways, the price for being in the service."

Freddie gave a quick acknowledging nod of his head then took another sip from his bottle of water.

Jade remained silent as she knew that neither would really want to hear her views on the matter.

The brown eyed teenager asked with a more upbeat tone, "So how old is the Colonel going to be?"

"Forty-nine," she chuckled out.

"Forty-nine?" Freddie shook his head then tried to suppress a smile as a thought occurred to him. "He's forty-nine then that would make you…I'm sorry Mrs. West, but you just don't look your age."

The raven haired woman raised an eyebrow and smirked at her extended guest. "Thank you Freddie. I will take that as a compliment."

"You're welcome," he answered and screwed the lid back on his bottle. He walked around the other side of the island to pass by his girlfriend and give Jade a quick kiss on the cheek while the dark brunette instinctively closed her eyes. He headed for the door and called out with a wave over his shoulder, "I'll see you two ladies later."

As soon as Freddie exited to the garage, Mrs. West smiled to her daughter and playfully commented, "Cat's upstairs waiting for you and has already gotten started."

The dark brunette smiled a wicked smile in knowing that Freddie would be quite surprised tomorrow night.

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Saturday, October 29, 2011

The time was approaching seven thirty as Mrs. West was relaxing on the couch in the living room and watching some television. She turned her attention away from the flatscreen television as she heard the soft footsteps of someone entering the living room from the opposite side of the room. She shook her head and stifled a small laugh with her right hand covering her mouth from her seat in the living room at seeing Freddie nervously entered the living room after coming from one of the downstairs bathrooms. The teenager's rooms were upstairs and they had separate bathrooms, but the couple had decided they were going to surprise the other with their costumes, so Freddie had opted to get ready downstairs.

The raven haired beauty stood up from her seat and put on a wide grin as she looked the teenager up and down, much to the chagrin of the former Seattleite if his facial expression was showing his true feelings. "What?" he asked with a bit of annoyance in his voice.

She took a few steps closer to get a better look at the costumed teenager. She couldn't keep the laughter out of her voice, "You decided to be Robert Pattinson? Jade doesn't care for those kinds of vampires."

He had recreated his look from when he appeared as a vampire in the short-film parody Moonlight Tri-Blood with wild, unkept hair, white facial makeup that made his cheeks appear hollowed out with similar clothing he had worn in the film. He snorted out a breath as he explained, "Actually I'm _Fredward_ Cullen and it's from a parody video we did on iCarly on the rash of vampire movies and TV shows. It was very, _very_ popular with the ladies and I thought some of my fans would get a kick out of seeing me dressed up."

Mrs. West bit her tongue softly for a moment then commented softly, "You're not afraid of the girls swamping you?"

Freddie gave her a knowing grin as he countered, "That's why I have you daughter to protect me."

"She's done that before hasn't she?" Mrs. West immediately closed her mouth at realizing what she had said.

Freddie cleared his throat and an awkward silence formed between the pair. He shook his head and reformed his smile to happily comment, "Excuse me, I have to go pick up your daughter now."

Ruby closed her eyes and shook her head slightly trying to hide her embarrassment from her comment.

He cut through the living room to head for the kitchen as the stairs exited into the kitchen and he was to wait for her at the bottom of the staircase.

Mrs. West looked up and blew out a soft breath then commented with a supportive tone, "You two have a nice time… just be home before… just be home before sunrise or you might burst into flames."

He called out with a laugh over his shoulder, "Or sparkle." He heard her call out as he entered the kitchen, "Now that would be scary!"

He blew out a nervous breath as he started pacing about the kitchen. He glance down at his left wrist to check the time to see how they were on time before the dance as he decided to wear a watch for the night so he wouldn't have to fumble with his phone every time he wanted to check the time. It was just after seven thirty and she was supposed to be down by that time so they would have plenty of time to reach the school before eight even if the really wasn't going to really get going until nine, but he just decided to patiently wait as he chalked up being late as a woman's purgative.

Interrupting Freddie's musings as he rested against the island and looking back into the living room, he heard Jade's soft voice from behind his shoulder, "Hey?" He turned and completely froze in place as he looked up with astonishment at seeing Jade standing just a few steps up the stairs with her right hand gently resting on the handrail.

Jade swallowed and tried to put on a nonchalant expression, but her voice broke a little as she asked, "How do I look?"

Freddie had to take his own swallow then barely blew out a breath past his lips as he looked up at his angel. This time it wasn't a fanciful description he had occasionally been using for Jade for the last four months, but an accurate description for the actress.

Jade was wearing a pure white sleeveless dress showing off some of her shoulders with a round neckline that went right up to under her neck and the inner hem coming down to her mid-thigh. The immaculately white dress appeared to be double layered with the outer layer looser around her sides and falling just above the inner layer of the bottom hem. Two of the ends of the outer layer were tied together just under her breasts as if the dress was partly a handkerchief. A piece of his mind wondered if it was called a handkerchief dress.

Attached to her back was her was a pair of delicate looking feathery white wings that came out from behind either side of her arms. They looked a little too good to be just an off the shelve Halloween costume accessory, but a part of his mind figured that with the resources at Hollywood Arts and Cat's costuming skills, they were as high quality as they appeared. Her outfit was completed with a silver halo hanging just above her head and over raven colored hair pulled behind her ears with her usual colored streaks replaced with a nearly silver color resting on her shoulders and gently falling onto her chest. Freddie wasn't entirely sure from the way the light above the stairs and the kitchen behind his back was making her dark brown hair look that dark or that she had colored it back to that shade for the night.

She put on a coy smile at seeing him shocked expression then whispered, "I thought about making a papier-mâché head with the four faces and another set of wings to wear to be more accurate in my costume, but…" She trailed off as she smiled down at him and he looked back up to her with wide open eyes and wonder on his face.

He was afraid to even blink as what looked to him as a vision would disappear if his eyes looked away for even a moment. He whispered out without thinking, "You are beautiful."

She lowered her head to break eye contact for a moment then whispered out softly, "Thank you…" She slowly took a few steps down the stairs to reach the bottom floor then looked back up to meet his eyes that were never taken off of her. She casually reached up and absently played with his unbutton collar. She whispered with a playful smile, "You don't look too bad yourself Mister Fredward Cullen."

Freddie cleared his throat and looked down at himself. "Thanks, I thought… I wanted to make a statement."

"Oh my God," the couple heard the mother whisper out in astonishment. The pair turned their heads and looked at the West Matriarch cover her mouth with a hand. "I'm getting pictures. You stay right there," Ruby demanded with a raised finger then turned and headed out of the kitchen.

Freddie chuckled out, "I think we should do as she says."

Jade raised an eyebrow and let a smile play on her face as she responded, "I think I'm going to agree with that idea this time."

The brown eyed teenager slipped his hands to rest on her hips while she instinctively stopped fiddling with his collar to rest her hands on his shoulders. "May I ask why an angel? Is this is your way of confessing to me you really are one?"

Jade bowed her head slightly to hide her smile for a moment then looked back up at him with a grin. She softly replied, "It's just another thing I hate, being predictable… I'm _not_ predictable and this certainly isn't predictable with everyone at Hollywood Arts."

He leaned forward and whispered, "Just another thing to love about you." He lean just a little further and captured her lips for a brief moment as both were to caught up with the chaste kiss to realize that he threw out the word love.

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Saturday, October 29, 2011

The time was about ten after eight as Freddie pulled the Charger into one of the parking spaces in the back parking lot of the school since they were using the Asphalt Café's parking lot as part of the party area as the did the 'Prome'. Freddie quickly turned off the ignition then stepped out of the Charger to walk around the beat up car. He put on the best appearance possible as he was trying to suppress the feeling of embarrassment rising from his stomach of bringing Jade to the dance with his car still with its decrepit appearance. As sappy as it sounded in his head, he thought as beautiful as Jade looked tonight, she deserved to arrive in something like a modern carriage than something rescued from a salvage yard. He mused for a moment it took him to walk around the front of the car that he would have settled for Magic Malika to turn a pumpkin into a carriage… and provided the pumpkin and mice.

He knew as soon as the details had been worked out for his royalty checks and set aside plenty for college, he was going to have his car restored.

He opened the passenger side door and offered his left arm to his companion, which she graciously accepted as she exited the vehicle and closed the door behind her. The couple headed towards the high school's entrance with the intention of cutting through the building and exiting out to the Asphalt Café. As the couple made their way down several hallways, some, if not all the lingering students they passed stole glances from the couple. Jade smiled as she could see the hint of jealousy in some of the eyes of the guys that they passed. She held on to Freddie's arm just a little bit tighter subconsciously realizing she was already with the best and they were out of luck.

A few moments later, the couple exited the school doors and outside and under the second level of the café to see the majority of the students already dancing and socializing.

"Wow," Freddie whispered as he saw the array of different costumes that the students of Hollywood Arts had thought of to wear.

Jade grinned then leaned into whisper into his ear, "Advantages of a performing arts high school."

The vampire dressed teenager laughed along in agreement.

As they started to head from underneath the second level of the café to the parking lot to dance, a group of female students stopped them. They were a mixed lot of (tasteful) fairies, nurses, a sexy witch and one looked like Glinda from the Wizard of Oz. They all held goofy expressions on their faces and held their breaths at seeing Freddie in full costume as Fredward Cullen.

He narrowed his eyes on the ladies and whispered in a low and seductive tone that he used in the short-film, "Hello ladies."

One girl placed a hand over her upper chest as she stared at Freddie and sucked in a sharp breath. The other girls looked at him with wide eyes and started giggling.

The auburn haired Glinda started, "I want the first dance—"

The dirty blond nurse interrupted, "No, I want the first dance!"

The raven haired teenager slightly frowned at the girls' reaction. "Girls," she whispered with a dark tone and narrowed her gaze upon them that usually sent any girl in the school begging her not to ruin them or running away, "I'm standing _right here_."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever Jade," the platinum blonde dressed up as a green fairy waved Jade off without a second thought as she and the other girls were now nearly drooling looking at Freddie.

The raven haired teenager's mouth dropped open at being brushed aside and ignored by the other girl. She was dumbfounded on how to react to being completely disregarded as a threat by other girls at school when they all knew perfectly well that she could destroy them socially then really start making them sorry.

Freddie commented out loud with wide eyes, "Okay, this was a _bad idea_."

Jade was able to pull herself out of her shock enough to retort with a hint of a sarcastic tone, "You think?"

Freddie whispered over with a hint of desperation and mild shock, "I thought you could intimidate them if they got too frisky. Who would have thought _you_ wouldn't be able to scare them?"

Jade raised a finger and was about to snap off a reply until she realized he was exactly right. Her annoyed expression fell away along with her dropping her arm at that realization. She slightly frowned in defeat as she reluctantly agreed, "Point taken."

A firm voice came from behind the teenage girls, "Shoo ladies." They turned to see Dusty waving the back of his hands towards them in a shooing motion. "I'm sure Benson will all spare you a dance before the evening's out if you behave yourself. Now go on and get."

The ladies turned their sweet dispositions to threatening glares at the teenager that would deny them near their dream boy.

The lean teenager frowned at them in return as he answered their challenging stare, "Don't bare your teeth at me ladies unless you're willing to lose them."

The girls frowned at him one last time then scurried off quickly with Dusty's gaze following them and smirking as they mingled back with the rest of the crowd. The Southern teenager turned his attention to the couple with a playful smile. He wasn't in a costume, but a black T-Shirt with the classic silver going to blue then red across the face of the Autobot symbol in the center of the chest and a pair of blue jeans.

Dusty let out a soft laugh as he looked at Freddie and motioned with a hand. "Fredward Cullen makes an appearance…" He turned his attention to Jade and gave her a quick once over with his eyes and her a small smile, "…wow… West you are as beautiful as an angel…" His smile turned into a grin as he finished, "Which I guess is the point?"

Jade bowed her head slightly from the compliment then whispered as she lifted her head to meet his eyes, "Thank you."

He gave her a respect bow of his head as he answered, "You're welcome… it fits you."

The raven haired teenager asked with a bit of curiosity in her voice, "Why do you say that?"

"Usually the first thing an angel says when it shows up is 'Fear not'. There is a reason for that. Appearing human to us is for our benefit, not theirs, because biblical angels are quite terrifying as they are beautiful and as I understand it, you certainly try for both on a daily basis… so it fits you quite well."

Jade shrugged her left shoulder as she tightened her arm looped around Freddie's left arm. "I thought about going for the real deal with a papier-mâché head for the four faces, but…"

"There is such a thing as doing too much." He motioned with his hand towards her. "An ironic choice for you considering how he is dressed… you come as an angel and he shows up as a demon possessed corpse. Did you plan that?"

Freddie cocked his head to the side and grinned from the description of his costume. He answered, "No. We surprised each other with our costumes."

Dusty grinned as he commented with a soft laugh, "That is a surprise… so for tonight, she's the one that gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition?"

The tech-producer's smile faltered for a brief moment as how close TheSlap webmaster's words had hit the mark about his life instead of the costume theme.

Jade felt Freddie tense up from the arm she was holding. She decided an interesting approach to brush away Freddie sudden awkwardness before Dusty noticed, "Yes, I'm his angel…" She turned her head to meet his eyes and give him a soft smile. "…the one that's always going to save him and pull him out of whatever Hell he finds himself in."

Dusty grinned politely as he nodded along as the Southern teenager filed that bit of information away in his head with his natural but unspoken curiosity as to why Freddie really did leave Seattle . In a soft and humbled tone, the Southern teen replied, "Pulling him out of Hell was easy West; the hard part is him walking on his own two feet into the sunlight once he's out of it. You can't do that for him."

Jade's smile faltered for the briefest of moments while Freddie looked impassive and Dusty gave the couple a regretful smile. All three seemed to realize that they were going into another conversation than the one on the surface about choices in Halloween costumes.

Freddie blew out a nervous breath then motioned with a hand to Dusty's black T-Shirt with the Autobot symbol on his chest. "So what are you?"

Dusty's face brightened up at the question. "Oh…" He pointed to the symbol on his chest. "I'm an Autobot."

Jade snorted out and smirked as she countered with a surprisingly friendly tone, "You were just too lazy to get a costume like those kids that come around my house with a superhero shirt on and expecting candy."

The Southern teenager laughed out loud as he stuffed his hands into his jean pockets. "I'm actually making a political statement against Shapiro… 'Freedom is the right of all sentient beings'… and quite frankly the fact that most people around here are in costume anyway every other day of the year, it would make more sense not to wear a costume so you could distinguish this day from all the others."

Jade blinked then her brow furled as she asked with a surprised tone, "What?"

"Almost everyone here wears a costume every—"

The angel dressed teenager raised a hand. "No, the other part about Robbie."

"Oh? I noticed that Shapiro wears a little Decepticon symbol on one of his belts when he comes in to do his cooking blog for TheSlap…" Dusty narrowed gaze on the couple and whispered with a conspiratorial tone, "I always wondered why he wore it… I wonder if the puppet transforms into something."

Freddie snorted out a breath and started laughing then nodded along as he commented, "That's kind of deep… on the wearing something normal to distinguish today being different, I mean."

Dusty shrugged a shoulder and casually answered, "Maybe." He caught something from the corner of his right eye and glanced over to notice something that quickly distracted him from the pair.

They followed his gaze and saw Cat was talking with André near the table they usually sat when eating lunch. She was dressed in her pink and black superhero costume she made when she was on her binge of continually making costumes after she started her costume design class. The songsmith was in orange/dark yellowish overalls with a matching jacket with a hood on his head that looked like a lion.

Dusty put on a big grin as he commented, "If you will excuse me, the night is young, I'm single and there are plenty of lovely young ladies to dance with before midnight …" He turned his head to look back at the couple as he finished, "…hopefully I'll be able to get one with you before the night is out West."

She smirked at him as she responded, "We'll see."

He raised both his hands and shrugged his shoulders. "All I can do is ask… but for right now, I'm going to go see if I can get a dance with a superhero," he commented as he motioned his head over to Cat.

"Later," Freddie bid farewell.

"Later lovebirds," he called out then started heading over to Cat.

Jade raised an eyebrow as she asked, "I thought he was talking with Christine?"

Freddie shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe they didn't click?"

The raven haired teenager shrugged a shoulder as they saw that the red velvet haired teenager happily went along in hand with Dusty to the parking lot to dance. They were going to head for the table to speak with André for a moment before heading to the parking lot to dance, but another girl suddenly appeared around one of the support beams for the second floor of the café.

Jade was about to snap in annoyance at the potential fangirl, but quickly realized that it was Ava in one of the wicked queen costumes she wore during the short film. She was wearing one of the less extravagant Renaissance dresses without all the frills and other adornments usually reserved for a queen.

"Hey," the light haired brunette greeted the couple with a cheerful tone.

Freddie smiled as he commented, "Hey, you look lovely Ava."

The light brunette smiled as she looked down at herself in her burgundy and white Renaissance dress.

She looked up at Freddie and replied, "Thanks." She quickly gave Jade a quick hug that threw the raven haired teenager off for a moment.

Ava pulled back and held her bare shoulders as she smiled at the pale actress. "I didn't get a chance to thank you in class yesterday, but the interview you did with Nevel shot up the viewer ship for the film even more…" She let off a soft giggle then continued, "I have a fan following now and people are asking when I'm going to do something on my own. People want to see me perform. Thank you Jade… for giving me a chance when no one else would."

Jade tried to put on awkward smile, but came out crooked from the blatant gratitude shown by the shorter teenager.

Ava smiled as she turned to see Sinjin approaching in his costume as a wizard from World of Warlords. As soon as he was close enough, she looped her arm around Sinjin's arm then the couple started off to mingle with some other students. "See you later," she called out over her shoulder.

Once they were out of earshot, Jade put on an even expression, almost a frown with a regretful stare as she saw the couple start to dance. She whispered, "I thought I had it bad… I may fight with Tori over parts, but she and the rest in Sikowitz's class are always over looked without a second thought."

He leaned close for a kiss just under her ear then whispered, "It puts things in a little perspective?"

She gave a slight sad nod and whispered, "Yeah." She slightly frowned as she stood there for a few seconds to process the meaning of what just happened and reflect on the new perspective on the last year and the half of having to compete with Tori.

Freddie leaned in and whispered to pull her out of her musings, "Hey, let's get a chance to say hi to André then get on with some dancing?"

She cracked a soft smile then replied, "Sure."

As they approached, they saw a girl dressed as what appeared to be a cabaret from the early Twentieth-Century with short hair just long enough to cover her ears, a black bowler hat on her head, a feathery red scarf around her neck and black vest over her low cut top that hinted at her cleavage, approach André with two red plastic cups in her hands.

The cabaret turned and asked curiously to the angel dressed actress, "Jade?"

Jade smirked as she was surprised at the girl's outfit. She stated/asked with a smug tone, "Tori?"

Tori blinked as she looked Jade up and down in her white dress. "Ah…"

Jade gave her a wicked smirk as she asked playfully, "Something wrong with my costume?"

Tori shook her head and let the scarf sway on her shoulders. "No, no, no… it's just—"

She smiled smugly as she asked, "Something you wouldn't predict me ever dressing up as?"

The younger Vega sister gave her a crooked and nervous smile as she commented, "No it's not… maybe a witch, but not an angel."

Jade was about to snap back about the witch comment, but Freddie laughed out, "You mean like the Wicked Witch of the West? Now that would be predictable."

She looked to him with a slight frown and furled brow.

He smiled then gave a brief kiss on her right temple. He confidently answered while looking back to her eyes, "I am obviously speaking about the wordplay with your name Miss _West_, but you would look quite sexy, but still predictable." Freddie arced an eyebrow then commented playfully, "I'm kind of interested in seeing that now."

The pale actress rolled her eyes, but couldn't suppress the smile on her face. She looked to André and asked, "So who are you supposed to be?"

The songsmith laughed as he raised his balled hands as a late Nineteenth-Century bare-knuckle boxer. "Put'em up, put'em up, I'm the cowardly lion," André finished with a smile.

Freddie let out a laugh, "Now you have to be the witch at some point." He looked back to André and let his brow furled as a thought occurred to him and he commented, "Why? You are far from being a coward."

He dropped his fists then raised his hand and pointed at the dressed up vampire. "Yeah, so was the lion. The wizard had to point out that being afraid didn't mean you couldn't be brave."

"Touché," Freddie answered as he pointed at the songwriter. He glanced towards his date and with a bright smile that clashed very badly with his costume asked, "How about we get something to drink then head out to our makeshift dance floor?"

Her playful smile in return matched her costume and answered, "Sounds like a great idea."

The table serving drinks was on one side of the raised platform they had set up for the showcase that exposed Ryder's MO to advance his grades and for their 'Prome'. Jade and André were standing by the punch bowl after getting their drinks as a few other students that included some that shared Sikowitz's class with them and a few that always played with André when they needed to form a band started chatting with them. Apparently Jade's choice of costumes became something of a conversation piece that Jade reveled as she had proven her point that she hated being predictable. Robbie was on the other side of the table dressed up as a secret agent while Rex sat on the table dressed as Count Dracula. He seemed to be catching the attention of all the ladies that stopped to get drinks as the girls seemed to enjoy the flirting with the puppet.

Freddie and Tori were standing off further down the table as they sipped on their respective drinks just watching the carrying on of the other students at the dance and the variety and imaginative costumes. Tori leaned over and whispered to the dressed up reanimated corpse with hesitant curiosity, "Why an angel? It's pretty much the last thing I would think of her picking as a costume."

Freddie blew out a breath then took a quick sip from his red plastic cup to wet his throat. He pulled the cup away from his lips and answered, "I think she wanted to play up what has become our inside joke… I've questioned sometimes about whether or not maybe she really is an angel with her beauty… inside and out… her voice… and Dusty hit on it a few minutes ago… maybe she is the one that I had to find to pull me out of Hell."

He felt a soft hand on his upper arm and he turned his head to meet Tori's sympathetic eyes. Her brown eyes were usually soft, but this time they took on even a softer gaze and compassionate expressiveness. "I'm sorry that it had to come to that… I really am… that maybe losing everything may have been the best thing to happen to you then to be with us… to be with Jade, but… maybe you saved her too?"

That was the first time she really had commented on the situation of him leaving Seattle and moving to Los Angeles. It really had become a near taboo subject to discuss within the group… he might just deal with it with them at some point, but that wouldn't be tonight. He smiled at her warmly and commented, "Since the Cowardly Lion has stolen my date for a moment…"

Tori sucked in a quick breath and her eyes nearly bulged out of her eye sockets. She desperately whispered, "Freddie, he's not—"

Freddie quickly raised his free hand and smiled as he answered, "I wasn't trying to imply anything, just pointing out that they are talking with each other, nothing more."

The cabaret dressed teenager let a relieved smile form on her face.

Freddie let out a soft chuckle as he leaned over to whisper in her ear this time, "She's not going to steal your date."

Her brow furled with confusion as she stated with a tone that indicated her confusion, "André's not my date."

Freddie raised an eyebrow that suggested that he really didn't believe her. He gave her a playful smirk as he continued, "Right… anyway, as I was saying, would you care to dance?" he asked with his free hand.

Tori smiled as she shook her head then gracefully accepted his hand and off they went to the dance floor.

The angel for the night took a sip from her drink as she saw Freddie take Tori down the steps to head off to dance. She glanced to André with a playful smirk and whispered with playful tone, "You ring in Tori to get Freddie out of the way so you could steal me for the night?"

André's face fell at the playful accusation as he thought that she may have found out about his brief crush on her.

Jade laughed and covered her mouth with her hand for a moment then commented as her laughter subsided, "Now that is a great impression of the Cowardly Lion... If you wanted to dance with me André, all you had to do was ask."

The songsmith laughed nervously as he realized that she didn't know about his brief feelings for her. "Nah, it wasn't my plan, but I would love to have a dance with you."

She gave him a wicked smile as she responded, "The night's young."

André was about to playfully ask why they should wait, but a very handsome young man had made his way through the socializing and dancing students to reached the stage. The pair turned along with the other teenagers still gathered around the table to see Beck dressed as an early Nineteenth-Century Western European Aristocrat, perhaps French just after Napoleonic Era. He paused in his stride halfway up the steps and mouth slightly hung open as he saw Jade turn slightly to meet his eyes.

Jade paused as well with a slightly taken aback and uncertain expression on her face as she looked to the familiar brown eyes. The singer bowed her head slightly to break eye contact with her former love as it had been awhile since he had looked at her like that which brought a rush of mixed emotions.

The actor whispered out, "You look beautiful."

Jade looked up and smiled back warmly and replied, "Thanks. You look pretty handsome yourself."

Beck put on a surprisingly nervous and lopsided grin at the comment as he took those last few steps on to the raised platform.

The other girls around the table and standing in the parking lot were giving Beck the same looks as they were giving Freddie. Months ago that would have made her mad to no ends about how they would carry on with him, but now…

The lion dressed songsmith gave a friendly laugh at seeing his friend and asked through the chuckles, "Hey, Beck; so who are you?"

Beck turned his attention to his friend and flashed one of his charming, boyish grins as he answered, "I'm the Count—"

Rex spoke up in a somewhat offended voice, "Hey, I'm already Count Dracula."

Beck cocked his head to the side and smiled patiently at his friend's alter ego. "I'm a different Count Rex." He turned back and looked to the pair to answer, "I'm the Count of Monte Cristo."

Rex commented, "Didn't want to go for something a little higher?"

Beck snorted out a laugh, "I thought going for king would be a little much."

"Probably since you're not the king heartthrob anymore," the vampire puppet laughed at his own comment.

Beck raised an eyebrow and looked to Jade and André for a moment in hopes that they could provide him with an explanation.

Jade shook her head and waved him off with a bit of annoyance in her voice from Rex's comment, "Never mind."

"Okay…" he answered with a hesitant, but mostly accepting tone. The actor gave Jade a hopeful smile as he asked, "Care to dance?"

What little irritating she felt from Rex quickly vanished as she gave him an accepting smile. "Sure."

He offered her an arm and she slipped her right arm through the loop. He led them through a parting crowd as André laughed out, "You still owe me that dance!"

The raven haired teenager laughed back, "Sure thing!"

Once the former couple found a spot, they turned to each other and started dancing along with the upbeat rhythm.

Not long into their pairing off, Beck frowned somewhat as he glanced around.

Jade obviously picked up on his distraction and started glancing around them. The surrounding girls continued to eye her ex as they danced and she even caught more than a few glancing over at Freddie as he continued to dance with Tori.

She closed the distance between them by leaning forward and resting both hands on his shoulders to whisper with a joking tone to the taller teenager, "Freddie's already had a few run in with the girls."

Beck's brow furled with a bit of confusion. "That doesn't concern you?"

She shrugged one of her bare shoulders and replied casually, "It's just the hazard of dating a handsome guy."

A corner of his mouth lifted and he raised an eyebrow.

She gave him an embarrassing smile as she whispered, "A lesson I've finally taken to heart."

"Well… I never made it easy for you," Beck admitted with a sheepish tone.

The white clad teenager nodded along then whispered, "How about we save our regrets for another time?"

He smiled in return and gently rested his hands on her hips. "Sounds like a perfect idea."

After dancing with the younger Vega sister for several songs, Freddie laughed as turned with wig wearing brunette back in the direction of the platform. "I think I've stolen you away from your date long enough."

Tori laughed and gave him a playful smack on his chest as they walked back to the drink table.

The pair stopped after walking up the few steps and Freddie commented with a smile he directed at André. "I brought your date back. I think you should get a chance to dance with your date.

André shook his head as he smirked at Freddie. He looked back the sexy cabaret with a genuine smile and asked softly, "Care to dance my lovely cabaret?

Tori passed a quick glance to a smirking Freddie then smiled to the songsmith as she replied, "I would love to dance my brave lion."

Freddie smiled as he shook his head as he watched his friends head off to enjoy a few minutes. He wondered how long it would take them to finally realize that they should start looking at each other than somewhere else. A part of him once again wondered if his and Carly's friendship had developed like Tori and André's friendship would things be different between them. A bit of sadness fell over his heart for a moment. He was pulled out of his musings by a white motion from the corner of his eye thinking that Jade was approaching him, but was surprised by someone else wearing a white costume.

Trina walked up the platform with a bright smile on her face. "Hey Freddie."

Trina was dressed as an ancient Greek goddess with a very short woman's white toga and green wreath resting on top of her head. She looked Freddie up and down with a hint of hunger in her eyes. She blew out a breath and was flabbergasted for a moment before commenting with a laugh, "Wow Freddie, you look great."

Freddie put on a borderline smug grin as he whispered back, "High praise from a goddess."

She laughed at the comment then casually asked, "Care to dance?"

Freddie dropped his mouth slightly opened and palmed a hand over his chest. "Wow, I get to dance with a goddess? How could I possibly turn down such an offer?"

Trina let out a soft laugh and quickly took Freddie's right hand and dragged the willing teenager down the steps.

The pair mingled their way back into the crowd as Freddie held onto Trina's left hand. They found a space to stop and start swaying and dancing a foot or so apart to a slower tempo, but not slow dance song.

The older Vega sister put on a bright smile as she asked, "What do you think of my costume? Think it's good enough to win the costume contest?"

Freddie arced an eyebrow as he asked, "You're in a costume? I thought you were just taken off the disguise."

Trina slightly shook her head and smirked. "Has anyone ever told you that you can be quite the charmer?

He pursed his lips and raised an eyebrow as he answered with his Cullen tone, "Surprisingly yes…"

The older Vega sister narrowed her eyes on him as she bit her lip bottom lip. She let out a low, aggressive and lustful growl.

Freddie shut his mouth quickly for a moment then whispered in his normal voice, "Trina, snap out of it."

She blinked at being pulled out of whatever fantasy with him was about to go through her head then whispered with an embarrassed tone, "Sorry, it just you're just so…" She sucked in a quick breath then finished with still a hint of lust in her voice, "Yummy right now and…"

The former Seattleite cracked a smile, "It's alright… I didn't think I would be this appealing."

"You are quite appealing without the costume."

He narrowed his eyes on her as he went back into character, but not voice, "Are you trying to sweet talk me Trina?"

Trina shook her head while wearing a playful smile answered with a forged innocent tone, "No, I would never try to sweet talk a handsome fella."

He laughed as he surprised her with raising his and her joined hand above her head and twirling her a few times which brought a laugh out of the older Vega sister then brought her to a stop.

They started swaying with the music again when Trina cleared her throat then started with a surprisingly serious tone, "Freddie?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm kinda interested in Beck?"

Freddie stopped his slow swaying and lowered their joined hands. He asked with complete disbelief, "What?"

Trina put on a nervous grin and slightly shook her head. "Well, you've been with Jade officially for… what? Three months? And since it looks like you two are really into each other and there's no chance of her and Beck getting back together… I always thought me and Beck would make a perfect couple, so…" She bit her bottom lip as she nervously waited for him to respond.

Freddie tried to mouth words that his brain hadn't even thought of yet. "Why exactly are you telling me this?"

"I don't know. I guess I wanted to know how you feel about it?" her statement came out more as a question as she wore a surprisingly apprehensive expression. "I know it can kind of puts you in a tight spot since you're dating Jade and it could look like…"

"You're keeping him out of the way for me."

"Yeah," she whispered with a sad tone.

He blew out a breath as he saw her face form a sad expression. He gently squeezed her hand he was still holding and gave her a reassuring smile even through the vampire makeup. He whispered warmly, "If you want to try then try. I'll just deal with any kind of fallout."

She pulled him into a hug and whispered into his ear, "Thanks Freddie."

"You're welcome."

Tori and André had their hands locked together as they slid up beside the former 'it' couple of Hollywood Arts. The songwriter laughed out his question to Jade, "Mind if I cut in?"

Jade glance to Beck for a moment then answered the songsmith, "Not at all."

André released Tori and slipped his hand to the small of Jade's back and grasped her other hand to pull her away for the Nineteenth-Century dressed teenager while Tori slipped in front of Beck. The actress commented with a smile, "And I don't think you'll mind me cutting in?"

Beck laughed as he graciously accepted Tori's offer and the two pair started dancing away from one another.

After dancing to a few more songs together and Freddie switching dance partners for Cat and Dusty with Trina for a few dances, the vampire and goddess were together again at the drink table to get new drinks. Once Freddie poured Trina a drink, they along with Robbie on the far end and Dusty to Freddie's right with Trina on his left, were resting against the punch table as they surveyed the dancing students. One noticed a particular couple dancing and a number of female students were eyeing the male half of the pair.

Dusty cradled his drink in his hands as he motioned with his head towards Beck as the former couple danced and asked, "The girls are eyeing you and the girls are eyeing him… who is he supposed to be?"

Rex spoke up from Robbie's grasp of being held up, "He's the Count of Monte Cristo."

Dusty passed a weary glance to Rex then rolled his eyes at how everyone humored Robbie with the puppet. He blew out a breath then commented to Freddie, "Didn't he get revenge on all those that wronged him and ruin his ex's marriage?"

Freddie raised an eyebrow at the question then slowly turned his head to look at the casually dressed teenager.

Dusty shrugged his shoulder then took a quick sip from his drink. "I'm just remembering from the book… in the movie with James Caviezel, didn't he turn around and marry her in the end after running a sword through the other guy?"

The teen heartthrob vampire frowned at Dusty as he caught the other teenager's point quite clear. He commented with a firm voice, "I trust Jade."

"It's not her intentions I'm questioning," the Autobot symbol wearing teen answered calmly then took a sip from the rim of his plastic cup.

Freddie turned his attention back to the former couple as they continued to dance with one another and keeping a particular eye on Beck as he held on to one of Jade's hands. The Seattle native commented dryly, "Maybe I don't want to fall into the trap of second guessing every move he makes in thinking he wants to try to get her back?"

Dusty cocked his head to the side and retorted, "Then you are a fool or a better man than I… I'm betting on the latter… I just hope I'm right."

Freddie snorted out and formed a small smile on his face. He countered, "It's not easy thinking the best of people… especially when they can fail so easily."

Dusty cocked his head to the side for a moment and commented idly, "I assume that's from personal experience."

Trina raised an eyebrow and looked passed Freddie to glance at Dusty.

Freddie nervously started, "Ah—"

TheSlap's webmaster looked down at his drink and commented, "It was an observation, not a question."

The former Seattleite nodded then glanced back to Trina. She gave him a reassuring smile.

Interrupting any kind of deeper discussion, Robbie spoke up to Freddie, "Would you watch Rex?"

Freddie raised an eyebrow and answered with a bit of hesitation and confusion, "Ah… sure?"

"Why?" Dusty was quick to ask with his curiosity getting the better of him.

Robbie lifted a corner of his mouth and gave the other teenager a perplexed expression. "I want to dance with Cat."

Dusty slightly frowned then commented, "Just watch where you put your hands."

The dark, curly haired teenager frowned for a moment as he looked to the lean teenager. "You're not her boyfriend anymore."

The casually dressed teen smiled as he retorted, "No I'm not, but if you put your hands where she doesn't want you to put them, you'll still answer to me."

Freddie waved off Robbie before the two really started an argument. "Go on and have fun Robbie. I'll watch Rex."

Robbie brightened and gently sat the puppet down on the table while Rex mumbled, "Hey, you can't just ditch—" The puppet fell silent as Robbie pulled his hand from Rex's back then quickly headed for Cat.

Freddie eyed the puppet with an uncomfortable expression for a moment as he literally became a puppet with his strings cut. It was one thing to talk to him knowing that it was really Robbie speaking and giving him life, but this was near close to looking at a corpse.

The L.A. immigrant closed his eyes for a moment with a bit of disbelief as he commented, "It is just weird how much you humor that boy with his puppet."

Freddie shrugged as shoulder as he countered, "You get used to it."

Dusty shook his head briefly accepting the answer and taking another sip from his drink. He could feel Freddie's eyes continue to look on him, but the former Carolinian teenager shrugged as shoulder. "I don't like the little creep, okay? Sue me," he commented without much care then took another sip from his drink.

"I hear you," Trina snapped in agreement with a supportive smirk on her face on the other side of Freddie then held up a closed fist across in front of Freddie. The Southern teen raised a free hand and accepted the fist bump.

Freddie passed Dusty a quick disapproving glance then one to Trina before raising a challenging eyebrow back to Dusty. "It has nothing to do with him being interested in your ex?"

The Southern teenager turned his head to meet the former Seattleite's eyes. "The same girl that he had no problem trying to embarrass with his stupid Robbarazzi blog when he had it last year? That tells me how much he _really cares_ about her. He's damn lucky Cat and I weren't together then or I would have shoved that puppet's hand up his backside since neither Harris nor Oliver had the balls to put a stop to him with his borderline racist photo-shopped pictures of Harris and continued undermining of West's and Oliver's relationship when they were still together. Oh, and don't watch those segment of West and Oliver; it'll just piss you off with him."

Trina closed her mouth shut and her eyes opened up with that description of what he would have done to Robbie and the advice he gave him in regards to Beck.

Freddie snorted out a breath and shook his head. "Why don't you tell us how you really feel?"

Dusty chuckled and grinned at the question.

A few moments later a very lovely young lady approached the three. She was dressed as a genie, particularly looking like the one from 'I Dream of Genie' while being quite tasteful in her outfit.

"Christine," Dusty acknowledged her with a smile.

Ryder's ex-girlfriend smirked at him and asked, "Care to dance?"

Dusty grinned as he softly chuckle. "I would love to dance, but since you're a professional, I might embarrass myself and you might put me to shame."

"Still willing to take that chance?"

He chuckled in response. "Absolutely." He glanced to Freddie and whispered with a smile, "Like I said, the night's young and there are plenty of lovely ladies to dance with." He rested his mostly empty cup on the table then offered his hand to the dancer. She quickly took it and pulled him along to the gathering of students.

As one of the songs ended, there was an announcement to remind the students to vote for the best male and female costumes for the night. Just before that last song, Jade had switched back with Tori to dance with Beck, but now she took the opportunity to take a break from dancing as she headed for the table with Beck in tow.

Once the former couple reached the table, Trina saw her opportunity and grabbed Beck by the hand and nearly dragged him away. "Come on pretty boy; I want a dance," she eagerly stated while holding his hand in a near death grip.

The early Nineteenth-Century dressed teenager looked shock by the older Vega sister's aggressiveness as she pulled him away from the table.

Jade looked over her shoulder to watch the pair scurried off to dance. She turned back to look at Freddie with a curious expression with the hopes that he had an explanation.

Freddie gave her a half smirk and shrugged his shoulder. "I guess she really wanted a dance with him."

Jade raised an eyebrow at that being his explanation.

He softly nodded along as he explained, "She's… interested in him."

The raven haired teenager blinked and slightly tilted her head to the side. "Really?"

"Yep," he tried to answer as casually as possible.

Jade looked down for a moment as the thought of Beck really moving on too had been pushed out of her mind for several weeks. She'd be a liar if she said she didn't feel a little bit of conflicted emotion of seeing him with anyone else as she reasonably assumed Beck felt the same way even after the last few months. She reflected once again on what Freddie had attempted to do in not being openly affectionate with her at school. Seeing your ex with another could be salt in the wound because they were your ex and moving on with someone that wasn't you. She finally commented, "Beck can do better than Trina."

Freddie raised his hands. "I am going to stay out of it," he eagerly commented. He dropped his hands and gave her a small smile. "I'm in a position to be biased on the matter of him getting a girlfriend, any girlfriend for _obvious_ reasons and Trina is my friend, so I would want things to work out for her." He motioned to one side with his hands, "Rock—" He motioned towards the other side, "Hard place." He shrugged his shoulders and gave her a pitiful smile.

Jade nodded along in understanding and blew out a tired breath.

A slow dance song finally started to play and Freddie's face immediately brightened as he ears picked up the music. He looked to his lovely date and asked in the tenderest way he could convey with his voice, "If I may finally have this dance?"

"Of course," she replied with a warm smile and slipped her hand gently into his palm. He graciously helped her down the few steps to the pavement and led her to the designated dance area. He turned around to face his lovely girlfriend then gently placed a hand on her right hip and held her left hand to the right side of his chest.

Jade closed her eyes and put on a joyful smile. She started to rub the tip of her nose against the side of nose a few times then stopped to softly capture his lips. He smiled into the kiss as he eagerly returned the sign of affection. She was the first to pull away from his lips and share a smile with him.

She relaxed her head on his right shoulder and they slowly swayed in place as the song set the relaxing mood in the background.

Freddie held her close with slipping the hand from her hip to the small of her back and just enjoyed the presence of the girl that had come to mean so much to him. His eyes glanced around to see that the majority of the other students were in a similar position with a few standing out from the rest:

Freddie had to suppress a smirk at seeing Beck look uncomfortable dancing with Trina to the slow dance song. The goddess dressed teenager had the biggest satisfactory grin on her face.

Ava and Sinjin looked like a blissful couple as a queen and wizard shared a fairytale dance with one another even without the costumes. Freddie thought of them as such an odd couple, one a little eccentric and the other more levelheaded and down to earth, but he knew he had very little room or place to judge who was right for one another.

Robbie was having trouble figuring out where to keep his hands as Cat was the one appearing to lead the pair in slow dancing. He thought maybe there was something to what Dusty had told him one time of Cat being the aggressive one.

Speaking of Dusty, he and the genie costumed dancer seemed to be enjoying each other's company with the slow dance with smiles on each of their faces and whispering to one another.

The vampire dressed teenager turned his attention to his right to see not too far off, a cowardly lion and performer holding one another. Tori had her forehead resting against André's cheek with their respective eyes closed and small smiles playing on each other's faces. He saw a sweetness and innocence of watching the two best friends sway together more than actually dance with one another… the same way he remembered his night at the Groovie Smoothie with Carly.

The now bittersweet memory couldn't even weigh him down as a bigger smile formed on his face as he realized he was truly happy at that moment.

Jade whispered, "When's the last time you danced like this?"

Freddie took a soft breath as his mind remained on the situation very much like he and his friends were currently experiencing. "It was at the Groovie Smoothie… it was after a girl's choice dance. I had hoped that Carly would have asked me to the dance, but… she turned me down to get with someone she met through speed dating scheme Sam had set up after Carly decided that there wasn't anyone at Ridgeway she wanted to go with."

The halo wearing teenager didn't bother trying to suppress the frown forming on her face at hearing those details.

"But the guy she took to the dance couldn't shut up and finally told him to leave while we were at the Groovie Smoothie together. I asked her to dance to give her one nice dance for the evening and she accepted…" He regretfully finished, "My night couldn't have ended better."

"I almost pity her… almost."

He tilted his head to look down and meet her open eyes with a curious expression as she kept her head on his shoulder.

She replied calmly without any bitterness, "That she was too stu—blind to see what was right in front of her."

She lifted her head and pulled her left hand from around his neck to palm his right cheek. "But I'm not…" She interrupted herself with bringing him into another kiss that she used to try to convey all the tenderness and feelings she had for him but couldn't put into words.

The rest of the night drifted by with more dancing among the group of core friends with the sprinkle of Sinjin, Ava and Dusty.

Sikowitz showed up with his hair neatly combed back and wearing a suit. When asked what he was, he replied in a surprisingly calm manner and professional manner, "I'm dressed up as a school teacher."

Dusty had laughed and motioned towards the acting teacher as a confirmation of his thoughts on dressing up on Halloween while going to Hollywood Arts.

Jade tolerated dancing with Robbie while it was a far more comfortable experience when he danced with Tori.

Ava gave a murderous, but playful look to Jade as the angel dressed girl danced with Ava's wizard boyfriend. Any discomfort she may have felt for dancing with the guy that at one time had a crush on her was pushed aside as Jade briefly wondered if the look Ava directed at her was anything like the look she gave to other girls when it came to Beck and Freddie.

Dusty got his wish to dance with a number of lovely ladies including with Ava (to a little bit of chagrin of Sinjin), Tori and Jade and several more dances with Cat to the wonder of Christine, but she didn't complain as he would turn around and dance with her.

As the time approached midnight, Helen (dressed up as Cleopatra) walked up to the microphone and podium that had been set up on the other end of the stage away from the refreshment table and tapped it with a finger to get the students attention. She smiled down at them as her blonde assistant (as an Egyptian priestess) held a light blue Mark 2 PearPad in her hands.

The Hollywood Arts gang gathered around together to look up to hear what she had to say.

The principal began, "It's time for the announcement of best male and female costumes." She read off two underclassmen with one dressed up as someone from Galaxy Wars and another as a generic, but highly decorative robot.

Helen laughed as she looked over at her assistance PearPad. She looked up at the audience and grinned as she happily announced, "We have a dead tie for best male costume: Beck Oliver and Freddie Benson!"

The two males each looked shocked at the announcement and had to each be pushed by the rest to realize that they had to walk on stage.

Dusty stifled a laugh then whispered over to Ava standing beside him, "They won it by the women's vote."

The shorter, light brunette snorted out as she glanced to the taller teenager, "You're surprised?"

The Southern teenager shook his head. "Not really."

The female population was eyeing the pair of handsome teenagers with hungry looks in their eyes as Helen next to announce the female winners.

Beck leaned over and whispered to his fellow recipient, "I think we should go?"

Freddie eagerly agreed with a sharp whisper, "That may not be such a bad idea at the way they are looking at us. Trust me on this one: they will try to tear clothing off if they are able to mob you."

Beck raised an eyebrow as he asked, "Speaking from personal experience?"

The former Seattleite nodded along as he answered, "Yep… it's only fun the second time."

"Well that's comforting to know," he answered with a sarcastic tone.

Helen shouted to the crowd, "Okay, now for our best female dressed… third place goes to… Trina Vega!"

Trina sucked in a surprise breath then quickly (and elbowed her way) through the crowd to walk on stage. She was happy and mad at the same time as she had won, but only came in third place.

Helen wasted no time to announce the next winner, "Second place, as the Wicked Queen, Ava Cohen!"

Ava covered her mouth from shocked then shouted for joy as she grabbed the closest person near her in a hug.

Dusty blinked at the sudden contact of the shorter teenage girl locking her arms around him for a surprise hug. He laughed out nervously, "Okay, okay, you can let go now." As quickly as she grabbed on to him, she let go and turned to bring Sinjin into a tight hug. The curly haired teenager smiled for joy at his girlfriend getting recognized.

She let go of Sinjin then quickly went up on stage and started waving down at the rest of the school body. She looked to Trina and the taller girl was able to work up the dignity to at least put on a pleasant face and congratulate the shorter teenager.

"And finally your choice for best female costume… Jade West!"

There was a cheer from the crowd of students. Jade blinked in surprise as she didn't even think she was in consideration as other than the halo and wings (very good tailored wings by Cat), she was just in a white dress. Tori had to give her a friendly shove to get her to walk towards the stage.

Dusty shook his head and smirked as he commented to Cat, "I guess an Angel of the Lord trumps goddess."

The red velvet haired teenager let out a soft giggle and covered her mouth as she eyed her cute ex-boyfriend.

The crowd's cheers seemed to subside as they realized the implication of their vote.

"Now this has gotten awkward," André mumbled out to Tori as he looked at the three on stage.

Tori wore a faltering smile as she answered back while keeping her eyes on the three. "Maybe."

However, Freddie and Beck didn't let the apparent and expected awkwardness to form as they each wore pleasant and congratulatory smiles directed at Jade as Helen greeted her on stage. They each in turn gave her a kiss on the cheek as she took her place with them on stage. The gestures and the apparent easy going nature of the two guys in relation to Jade seemed to push away any apprehension of awkwardness that could invade the good time for their winners.

One more dance was given for the winners to share among themselves then the dance finally started winding down. The students started making their separate ways to either go home or to some after party. The Hollywood Arts gang gave their farewells and started on their separate ways.

Freddie escorted Jade with an arm around her waist and hand resting in her right hip back to his car as he realized that his lovely girlfriend had gotten quite tired with all the dancing over the night.

Once they reached the Charger, Jade pulled off her wings and halo then pushed down her seat to gently lay them in the back seat of the vehicle.

"Fun night?" Freddie asked as he slipped into his driver's seat.

Jade smiled warmly as she buckled her seat belt, relaxed in her seat and her head against the headrest. She looked over to him and she whispered in return, but had to pause for a moment with a yawn midway through her reply, "Fun—night."

"You really want to skip any after party? A slumber party at Tori and Trina's might be fun?" he teased her.

The raven haired teenager smirked as she replied, "Maybe… but I think I want to be a little selfish in wanting to have you all to myself for the rest of the night."

Freddie poked his tongue under his bottom lip and shook his head slightly as he stuck his key into the ignition. He laughed softly as he asked, "Is that code for you sleeping in my bed tonight?"

Jade just laughed loudly as Freddie wore a smirk on his face and starting the ignition then pulled the vehicle out of the parking spot and on their way home.

Author's Note: Way longer chapter than I expected to write, but I hope you enjoyed it. I think the next update will be in another two weeks; I'm not sure. I hope the choice for Jade's costume wasn't too much out of left field. Speaking of her dress, the dress Jade wore in this chapter is the Cotton-poplin handkerchief dress by Alexander Wang that Elizabeth Gillies wore in the last bumper/promos for Victorious where they are all wearing shades of white clothing. Don't be shy with the reviews and have a happy weekend.


	23. Chapter 23

Author's Note: Hello everyone. I hope everyone had a nice week. Mine was pretty rough and almost wasn't able to get this update finished and seriously considered putting it off for another week, but was able to find the time and get it done. This chapter has spoilers for an iCarly episode and the B-plot of a Victorious episode.

New episode of iCarly this Saturday and from what little is known about it, I want another royalty check from Dan with what 'surprise' occupation Freddie gets in the new episode. A week later is the new Victorious Special and that should be quite interesting.

Finally, slight warning for language, very mild adult themes and violence.

Special Guest Appearance by Jennifer Connelly as Ruby Lynn West, Special Guest Appearance by Joe Flanigan as Colonel Steven Shay

Enjoy the story.

* * *

><p>Chapter 23<p>

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Sunday, October 30, 2011

Freddie blew out a breath with feeling the day and night start to catch up with him as he flipped the light switch off and exited his bathroom after thoroughly washing off his face and product out of his hair. His hair was a complete mess in all directions after nearly soaking t and drying it with a towel. He thought he might have over did the day with working his full shift at the Pear Store then partying up the night, but he wouldn't have traded tonight.

He pulled off his shirt over his head then tossed it in his chair where his jacket was already draped over the headrest and back of it. He headed to his dresser draws to pull out a short-sleeve navy blue T-shirt to wear to sleep. He grabbed a pair of plaid patterned pajama pants then shut his draw closed as he walked over to the bed. He took a few moments to sit on his bed to take his shoes off and change out of his jeans into the pajama bottoms.

The former Seattleite tossed the black jeans into his chair with the intention of hanging them up in the morning then pushed his sneakers under his bed. He rested his hands on the edge of the bed and blew out a breath with a big grin on his face. He really did feel exhausted, but it was a wonderful sense of exhaustion.

The brown eyed teenager heard a soft whispered from his bedroom door, "Knock, knock."

He turned his head to see Jade leaning against the door frame. "Hey," he whispered to her with a warm smile.

She just smiled softly as Freddie could see the tiredness in her eyes. She had changed from her beautiful angel out fit into one of his older grey Penny-Ts and a pair of navy pajama (very short) shorts. The silver hair extension remained in her hair, but that wasn't out of the ordinary since she slept with extensions in her hair more than half the time (as he saw her just before bed as opposed to seeing her before sleeping in the same bed at the same time since he could count the times they had done that on one hand).

The pale actress pushed off the door frame and slowly walked to him as he stood up from the bed. Once she stood right in front of him, she rested her hands on his chest and spoke barely audible, "Tonight was fun."

He instinctively wrapped his arms around her and rested his hands on the small of her back. He smiled softly in return and whispered, "Yes it was… I got to dance with a lot of pretty girls, I won the costume contest… went with the prettiest girl at school… in the city… in the state… I could keep going?"

Jade grinned and blew out a soft breath through her nose. "You are such a charmer."

He brushed a bit of hair off of her forehead then kissed her forehead. "It just comes naturally with you," he mumbled as his lips remained softly pressed against her forehead.

She closed her eyes and the pair rested their foreheads against one another and remained standing in each other's presence for a few moments that stretched into minutes. Jade finally breathed out, "I'm tired."

He cracked a soft smile as he whispered out, "You want to stay the night?"

The dark haired teenager's lips parted into a big grin then she whispered, "I'd love that."

He chuckled for a moment then caught the pale actress off guard with bending down on his left side and running his left hand from the small of her back down her thigh then slipped in from her left side to behind the back of her knees and quickly swept her off of her feet.

Jade laughed as she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck. He shared the laugh as he turned to his left then gently sat her on his bed. He pulled his arm from underneath her knees and slid to her left side on the bed. His face hovered over her face and they shared a smile while looking into each other's eyes. He leaned his head down slightly to catch her lips with a chaste kiss.

Freddie rested his left hand on her stomach and she slid her hands to rest on his upper chest while they shared a few more kisses. He pulled his lips away a few moments later and rested his head beside her head on the Galaxy Wars pillowcase covered pillow while pulling her close to him.

He rubbed his nose against her cheek and smiled as she relaxed in his embrace with a content smile on her face.

The brown eyed teenager whispered as fell to slumber, "'night Jade… I, you."

The bluish-green eyed teenager yawned then whispered in response as her own eyelids fell, "I love you too…"

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Monday, October 31, 2011

It was approaching midnight on Halloween night when the kitchen door to the garage snapped open and Jade and Freddie dashed inside the kitchen with huge grins on their respective faces. The couple was trying to suppress their laughter as they were leaning forward just inside the threshold of the kitchen with Freddie holding on to Jade tight to him with his left arm around her abdomen.

Freddie gently walked her to their left to lean against the kitchen counter as they tried to get over their fits of laughter. He took a few breaths to calm himself and tried speaking through his laughter, "I can't—" He chuckled again then picked up, "I can't believe you did that!"

She covered her mouth with the back of her hand trying to help calm her laughter so she could speak. "Oh, you—you never got into trouble like that in Seattle?" she barely got out then started laughing again.

He pulled her up with him to stand straight and turned his head to meet her eyes. His grin was nearly ear to ear as he answered, "Usually we were too busy trying to keep Sam out of trouble or get her out of it. I'm the responsible one remember?"

Freddie mentioning the blue eyed she-demon couldn't spoil Jade's happy mood as her smile remained on her face. Her eyes met and focused on the brown eyed teenager and their individual big grins slowly gave way to softer smiles. They each took several calming breaths as they studied each other's eyes.

They shared a smile then leaned in at the same time to capture each other's lips for a chaste kiss while Jade also lifted her left hand to cup his right cheek.

Freddie wore a barely perceivable smile as he whispered, "Happy Halloween Jadelyn."

She returned with an equally genuine smile, "Happy Halloween Fredward."

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Tuesday, November 1, 2011

The Hollywood Arts group was around their usual table eating lunch as always (these kids really need a bit of variety in their lives) and started sharing what they did for Halloween night with André speak up with a grin, "So Cat, how did you spend your Halloween night? We missed you at our movie night."

The red velvet haired teenager spoke up eagerly and with a happy tone, "Dusty went with me to go Trick-or-Treating." She pulled a piece of candy from her cleavage and held up a red gummy bear between her pointer, middle fingers and thumb. "Gummy Bear?" she asked with a smirk.

Robbie slightly frowned when she mentioned the Southern teenager's name.

Freddie laughed as he happily accepted the offer of candy with reaching across the table. Cat proceeded to pull out a few gumdrops and pass them to the rest of the group while they shared a few confused looks among one another.

Jade smirked as she commented to the childlike teenager, "That was sweet of him." She thought she heard the faint sound of a disapproving snort from Robbie.

Cat bowed her head slightly as she answered, "Yes it was… we got Ava and Sinjin to go with us. It was fun. I got tons of candy."

Beck asked with a bit of humor to his voice as he looked to his ex-girlfriend, "What did you do?"

Freddie glanced to Jade and tried to hide his smirk.

Beck smiled as he commented, "You two chucked eggs at your neighbor's house?"

The Tech-Producer put on a big smile and spoke with faint offense, "I did no such thing—"

"I did," Jade interrupted. The group looked to her with a mixture of shock and quiet acceptance. She gave Beck a somewhat embarrassing smile. "You know how my neighbors are; they deserved to wash some egg yokes off their houses."

Beck snorted out a laugh. "Yeah, yeah, I know how they are."

The still raven haired teenager asked with a soft smile, "How did you celebrate All Hallows' Eve?"

Tori answered after finishing eating a French fry. "He was with us for our scary movie night at my house."

"Oh?" Jade asked cautiously with a bit of surprise.

Beck narrowed his eyes slightly from Jade's response.

Rex spoke up with a quite irritated tone, "And he was late with the pizza."

Freddie raised an eyebrow as he tried to figure out how the puppet ate anything.

The songsmith spoke up in the actor's defense, "Hey, I think he did his penance with having to deal with Trina for most of the night."

The longer haired teenage guy picked up with a dry tone, "Yes… Trina was…" then sipped on the straw to his drink.

André laughed a bit as he interrupted, "All night she was trying to put the moves on you?"

Rex spoke up with a laugh, "I heard that you've asked her out?"

The attractive actor raised an eyebrow at Rex's comment then softly shook his head as he answered Andra, "Let's not talk about it."

Freddie shook his head slightly and wondered why Beck didn't just try to let Trina down gently instead of dealing with her all night. He briefly recalled how he didn't listen to Carly years ago, but another part of his mind reminded him that he was thirteen and fourteen at the time and Trina was eighteen now, so immaturity wasn't an excuse for not trying to talk to Trina on her or Beck's part.

As the rest laughed and Freddie was lost in his own thoughts, Jade met Beck's eyes to give him a sympathetic expression.

He easily picked up on her nonverbal support and gave her an acknowledging and thankful smile.

Guidance Counselor's Office  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Lane relaxed in his wicker chair and rested his right forearm on his raised right leg. "How are you doing Freddie? I was worried when you skipped out on our last meeting… and your little confrontation with Randy Bronson."

Freddie relaxed in the worn leather couch and smiled in return as he answered, "Well it just wasn't my day and I didn't feel like opening up after how the day had gone and Randy shouldn't have swung on me."

The guidance counselor smiled as he agreed, "No he shouldn't have… has he bothered you since then?"

The former Seattleite shook his head. "Nah, he's afraid I'll hit him again and everyone else seems to have gotten over their eyes getting all janked up. Maybe they're afraid that I'll hit them too if they try anything or they've heard about how Pear Company and the Galaxy Wars creator are fighting over me for the technology."

"Oh?"

Freddie softly chuckled, "Yep. Everyone else may have been upset about their eyes, but that afternoon they were waiting for me at home to try to buy some rights to my technology. I'm going to be very well off after all the details are worked out."

Lane snorted out with a smile, "Well that's pretty good news. I'm glad it turned around for you."

"Thanks and it is pretty good news, especially since I don't have a clue how to fix it. They'll be the ones that have to figure it out and in the meantime, I'm going to be able to pay for any college I want to go to."

Lane pushed off the table with his other foot to slightly swing the wicker chair as he cautiously asked, "Makes up for not going to your camp over the summer?"

"Yeah, but… if I had gone to my camp, I wouldn't have met back up with Jade during the summer,"

Lane pointedly asked, "Do you think you're the only one that may realize that?"

Freddie shook his head. "I know I'm not, but Jade doesn't want to give Sam any credit for what was obviously a callus action on her part."

"I wasn't necessarily talking about Jade," he retorted with a soft tone.

The tech-producer shrugged a shoulder and casually responded, "You'd have to ask Carly and Sam that question, but… I don't think it would be a stretch to think that."

"Carly and Sam? Speaking of them, have you thought about what we talked about last time?"

Freddie blew out a soft breath from his nose and leaned forward to rest his forearms on his knees. "Yes… you were right about last time… my need to forgive, but it's not just that I realized, but something else over the last week or so."

"Oh?"

Freddie snorted out a soft breath and whispered, "I'm happy." He took a quick breath then smiled as he continued, "I'm starting to feel like me again… I think I'm ready to finally start forgiving everyone."

The guidance counselor raised a concerned eyebrow. "How does Jade feel about that? It's not hard to imagine that she could still hold some resentment towards Carly and especially Sam."

He quickly thought about the slip of the tongue from Jade during the group's mini-mystery and integration about the accident Trina had during his and Tori's first play about her feelings in regards to Sam and how she had 'expressed' them during their last confrontation. "She supports my decision and understands my reasons."

Freddie could hear the obvious concern in Lane's voice as he asked, "She's not concern about the possibility of you going back? You're not concern about going back?"

Freddie's smile faltered for a brief moment and he took a deep breath. "She was, but… we talked it out… our fears and our concerns and we're good. She knows I'm here to stay."

Lane slightly bowed his head as he asked with a bit of surprise, "For her?"

Freddie cracked a small smile as he answered, "Not just for her, but she is a very good reason to stay and she wants me to stay."

"Then has she told you that she loves you? Have you her that you love her? I know that would be a major milestone for the two of you."

Freddie gave a friendly smirk as he answered, "No we haven't, but I really think we're getting there… I know I am, but…"

Lane took a deep breath and sat up straighter in his swinging chair. "You think after you've settled everything with Carly and the rest that you'll be ready to love her like that?"

"I haven't really thought about it in those terms, but… that just might be the case. I can't run away from my past… not anymore; I have to deal with it before I can move forward,"

"Well, what do you plan to do about it?"

"The obvious… I have to start talking to Carly. I don't know how to broach it with her…"

"It might be as simple as calling her?"

Freddie raised an eyebrow and smirked as he questioned, "Straightforward approach?"

Lane snorted out a laugh, "It has the advantage of being simple."

Freddie cracked a smile and nodded along.

"And Sam?"

Freddie cocked his head to the side and smirked with his answer, "That's… going to be a little slower."

"This is a pretty big step… considering everything that's happened. When you first walked in here you were a pretty angry person and not very trusting."

Freddie raised an eyebrow and smirked. "You thought my sexuality was a legitimate topic of discussion for a Slap update, so I think I was well within my right not to trust you and I'm still a pretty angry guy… I'm just now trying to get over it. I'm ready to find the balance between my old-self, but not a pushover anymore."

Lane sucked in a quick breath through his lips and put on a brief, embarrassing smile. "Point taken… kindness not being mistaken for weakness?"

"Something like that," he answered with a confident smile.

"Well… I guess there's really much left to say until you've spoken with Carly?"

"I guess not... her father is supposed to come home for his birthday later this week... I think I'll take some time to talk with her when I call up to wish him a happy birthday or Mrs. West could pass along the message when she flies up this weekend."

The guidance counselor raised a curious eyebrow. "Jade's mother is going to Seattle?"

The tech-producer nodded along. "Yeah, I've mentioned before, Mrs. West and the Colonel are childhood friends and she's flying up to see him. They obviously don't get to see one another on a regular basis and she's taking advantage of his trip here. Jade and I are going to get the house to ourselves for the weekend."

"You don't find it ironic or a little coincidental that Jade's mother and Carly's father just happened to be friends?"

Freddie shrugged a shoulder. "There are plenty of coincident in life: Tori and Shelby Marx could be identical twins, her dad looks like Mario from my favorite pie place in Seattle, André looks like someone we had to perform on the show years ago that we met when some executive wanted to try to turn iCarly into a television show. I wouldn't be surprise in the future to run into another copy of Sam or Carly or maybe even you. My life has been full of coincidences. However, Mrs. West is not a topic for discussion. I don't see how her personal life has anything to do with me."

"You don't think there may be a little conflict that they are friends, but their children are not exactly on friendly term?"

"I haven't asked her and I haven't seen any conflict result from it. I haven't seen Jade make any kind of issue on the matter. They seem to be on fine terms especially since she was quite happy to be going up to see him. Since Carly and Jade don't talk, there really isn't anything to argue about. They're not dealing with one another."

"That might change over the weekend?"

Freddie snorted out with a bit of a laugh, "They're adults and life long friends; I think they can work out any problems and I highly doubt Carly is going to bring it up since she's just going to be happy to see him and not really thinking about anything else."

Lane grinned and nodded along. "I guess you're right."

The pair sat there with an awkward pause for a few moments then Freddie commented, "Well, if there isn't anything really pressing... I guess I'll head on to class and let you know what happened next week? I know you'll be eager to analyze that."

Lane let out a soft laugh, "Yeah I would. I am here to help. I'll see you then."

Freddie gave him a nod then got up to head for the door.

Lane watched the teenager go and slightly nodded head. He whispered to himself, "Good luck Freddie."

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Beck blew out an irritated breath as he briskly made his way down the main stairs of the school holding his book bag tightly against his shoulder. He had gone to bed in a foul mood from his feeling of helplessness in attempting to comfort the other person on the other end of his phone during his late night phone conversation. He had woken up feeling the same way, especially after a quick text message that didn't fool him for a moment in saying that she was feeling better. Now he was at school and his mood was one of great irritation as he had further gossip of him supposedly asking Trina out.

He cut through the mingling students and eagerly asking any that he passed whether they had seen the older Vega sister. He reached the main hallway and saw the back of the dark brunette further down the hall near Tori's locker. He picked up his pace and caught up with Trina and called out, "Hey Trina."

She turned around and closed her pocket mirror. "Hey pretty boy, looking for moi?" she greeted him with a big smile as she slipped the mirror in her bag.

Beck asked curiously, "Have you been going around and telling anyone that I asked you out?"

She slightly shook her head as she maintained her smile and replied, "No, I have been telling everyone you asked me out."

Beck blinked and gave her a look of disbelief. He asked her with a bit of indignation and confusion, "Why are you telling people I asked you out?"

She smirked at him as she confidently answered while bringing and clasping her hands together in front of her, "Because, if people think you are interested in me then other guy will want to date me and pretty soon I will have guys fighting over me."

Beck's mouth partially parted as he put on a disbelieving smile. "Okay, you're a maniac."

Trina glanced over Beck's shoulder then cried out, "Oh yes!" She grabbed his shoulders to pull him into a kiss. She held on to him for a few seconds then pulled away as several boys finished walking past them.

Beck blinked in shock as he touched his bottom lip then looked down at his fingertips to check to see if he was bleeding. "You bit my lip."

She took a step forward and smirked while whispering in a seductive tone, "I tried to bite both." She turned the corner and walked away leaving the long haired actor standing there dumbfounded.

* * *

><p>Lunch time rolled around and Freddie, Trina and Dusty were at the Grub Truck picking up lunch before heading to their usual table and Dusty heading off back to his friends.<p>

Freddie asked Trina with confusion lacing his voice as she was ahead of him in line, "You bit his bottom lip?"

She looked over her shoulder and laughed sure of herself, "I tried to bite both."

"Wow, that's kind of kinky," Dusty snorted out with a laugh as he was standing to the right of Freddie.

Freddie looked at him with an expression that questioned whether he had really just spoke.

He shrugged his shoulders and put on an even expression. "What? That was _obviously_ her intention."

Trina smirked with a self-satisfying expression on her face seeming to agree with his assessment.

Freddie sighed and gave her a sympathetic expression, "Trina, you can't do this."

She snorted out and gave him a bit of a curious expression as she answered, "Why?"

The brown eyed teenager raised an eyebrow and spoke as if it was the most obvious answer, "Because it's wrong."

The older brunette rolled her eyes. "I thought you were going to stay out of it."

Freddie threw up his hands and blew out a breath. "Fine, you want to go off that cliff then go off that cliff. No one ever listens to me, why should you be any different. I just didn't want you to get hurt."

The older Vega sister blew out a sharp breath and a brief moment of regret and embarrassment crossed the girl's face.

Dusty glanced to Freddie for a moment then back to the older Vega sister. He patiently asked, "Why do are you telling guys that Oliver asked you out in the first place?"

Trina shook off her funk and quickly answered, "_Because_ I'll have boys _fighting _over me if they think he's interested in me and maybe it will get him to realize he should look at me."

"Hollywood Arts boys?" he asked, blinking several times as he wondered if she was serious. "Why? Vega… this is a performing arts high school; half the guys here are gay and the other half is a mixed bag of freaks, weirdos, Glee wannabes and those already in committed relationships; why would you want any of that half? Aren't the available ones kind of beneath you?" He motioned a hand up and down her and finished, "You know, being all hot and everything?"

Trina's mouth opened then quickly closed as she realized she didn't have an answer. "Which one are you?"

"Of what?"

She elaborated, "Of what you said made up the male population here. Some girls have been interested in you."

Dusty raised an eyebrow and laughed, "I'm the weird boy from the South with all those backward beliefs."

Trina rolled her eyes and commented dryly, "Explained why you dated Cat."

The Southern teenager snapped back without missing a beat, "You're just jealous she's hotter than you."

She took a step forward towards the taller teenager. "Excuse me?" she asked with a bit of an attitude from her voice.

"You're excused," he retorted with a stern voice.

Freddie gave Dusty a soft frown.

"What?" he answered with a bit of indignation. "She took a swipe at Cat, I swung back. I'm not letting her have a freebie shot."

Freddie palmed his forehead and blew out a breath. He dropped his hand then looked to Trina in the hopes of defusing any argument between them before it started knowing that despite Cat being Dusty's ex, he would quickly defend the naïve redhead from any perceived threat and Trina was not one to back down from anything.

"Trina, please don't do this. Please? The best you can do is show him why you would be a great catch and leave it at that. Please trust me on this… I'm talking from experience."

Dusty quickly pointed out, "But yours didn't work out; should you be using yourself as an example?"

Freddie raised a curious eyebrow as he looked to TheSlap webmaster.

He raised an eyebrow and commented as if he was stating the sky was blue, "You didn't get with Carly."

The Seattle native's mouth quickly turned into a frown.

"Hey, I'm just pointing out reality. You were yourself and you didn't get with her."

"Country boy here does have a point, but we know Carly obviously doesn't have great taste in guys,"

Freddie snorted out some of the irritation that was building in his chest. He glanced quickly between the pair and answered, "But it worked for Jade."

"I thought that was an accident? You actually never really pursued her. You just—" Trina paused and motioned her hands together in a poor attempt to represent the couple. "Got together one nigh—"

"Hey!" Freddie cut her off with a sharp tone and sharper look in his eyes towards the lovely brunette.

Trina quickly shut her mouth and looked a little nervous and a bit guilty for what she said.

Dusty's eyes darted back and forth between the friends as he quickly realized that Trina had took a turn into something that was quite private that he really shouldn't be a part of hearing.

The Seattle native blew out a breath and continued with a firm voice, "How we got together _is not my point_. Jade likes me because of me, not because I try to pretend to be someone I'm not or any other kind of scheme."

Trina took a soft breath and nodded along, but the look on her face suggested that she wasn't exactly happy with his suggestion, but not disregarding it out of hand.

Freddie put on a friendlier expression and softly asked, "Just please think about what I'm asking? Please?"

Trina snorted out a breath and shook her head. "Okay, I'll think about it."

Freddie gave her a grateful smile.

Festus shouted from behind and above Trina, "Are you ready to order?"

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Thursday, November 3, 2011

Trina was quite excited as she left the lead dance instructor's office after hearing that she had been accepted to the dance class for the following semester. The curly strawberry-blonde teacher wasn't nearly as excited, but Trina didn't care as she was determined to take advantage of the full range of options offered at Hollywood Arts, especially since she had delayed her graduation by a year.

As Trina was rounding a corner to get back onto on of the main hallways, she saw the school's considered heartthrob (and still must eligible bachelor) casually leaning against another door frame as if waiting for her. She asked with a surprise tone at his presence, "Beck?"

Beck gave Trina a charming smile as he walked over to her. "'S up Trina?"

She cautiously asked, "What are you here for?"

Beck gave her a boyish grin as he whispered, "You."

She asked with a bit of disbelief in her voice, "Me? I don't understand."

He took her right hand and started massaging her fingers. "Ever since you kissed me this morning, it's affected me."

She nervously whispered out, "I had a burrito for breakfast; was it the onions?"

He smiled warmly at her, "I like you."

"Whaaat?" she asked flabbergasted from his admission.

He maintained his charming smile as he asked, "Can I come over to your house tonight?"

"Yes. Oh my God, yes please," she answered as if his mere presence was giving her a sexual thrill. She grinned at him. "You want me to make you some dinner?"

He smiled at her in a way that starting to make her feel quite warm. "Yeah, will you make me a chicken?"

She grinned as she held on to both of his hands by the fingers. "Yeah, oh yeah, I'll make you a chi—"

He stopped her by grabbing her chin and bringing her into a surprise kiss. He pulled away just as quickly as he had initiated the kiss and softly patted her right cheek.

The older Vega sister had her eyes closed and waved at him as he walked away.

In Route to West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Jade relaxed in the passenger seat of the '67 GTO as Beck was giving her a ride home after a typical day at Hollywood Arts: go to class, meet up in Sikowitz's class, have lunch go to their various fourth period classes then head home, except for Beck trying to dodge Trina's advances and hearing rumors that Beck had asked her out.

Usually while Freddie had his guitar lesson with André on Wednesday afternoons, she would just wait on him by going to the library and work on homework instead of taking two cars to school that morning, but today she just wanted to go home and relax as soon as that last bell had rang. Beck offered her a ride home and she eagerly accepted his invitation.

The ride so far had been quite for the most part. There wasn't any particular tension or awkward silence between them, but Beck seemed particularly focused on the road without a hint of wanting to engage in any kind of casual conversation. Jade actually found it a little distracting, so she asked the obvious question, "Are you alright?"

"What?" Beck asked with a distracted tone with only briefly taking his eyes off the road to glance towards the raven haired girl.

"I said 'Are you alright?'" she asked with a bit more concern in her voice.

He blew out a breath through his nose and ran his right hand through his hair. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You seem… really focused on the road?"

"I just…" he snorted out as he trailed off.

"You want to talk about it? Whatever it is?"

"You're the one that always listened, but…"

Jade slightly frowned at Beck trailing off and turned her attention to look out the front windshield.

He gave her a brief glance before returning his full attention on the road. "It's not you, I just don't want to talk about it with anyone, okay?" He let a brief smile form on his face as he finished with a more upbeat tone, "You know you'd still be the first I'd talk to if I needed to talk."

His sentiment brought a soft smile to her lips. "Is it Trina?"

Beck raised an eyebrow and slightly frowned.

The raven haired girl was momentarily confused as she thought she had guessed incorrectly from his facial expression, but brushed that aside and continued, "I know the details behind Trina's behavior. Freddie told me on Saturday night."

Beck slightly cocked his head to the side as he put on a smirk. "So he knew Trina was going to try her… moves?"

Jade spoke up a little defensively for her boyfriend in her voice, "Yes, but Freddie said he is staying out of it."

The actor slowly responded, "That's considerate…"

The pale singer let out a soft sigh as she countered, "He realizes the position it puts him in: his girlfriend's ex getting with another girl could be seen benefiting him, but he also looks at it that the other girl is his friend and wants her to be happy. He said it felt like being between a rock and a hard place."

Beck's brow slightly furled for a moment then asked with a bit of disbelief, "So he's not rooting for Trina because of me, but not warning me because of Trina?"

She smiled as if the answer was obvious as she commented, "He wants to stay neutral."

"I guess that's understandable."

"Mind if I ask if you are interested in her?"

He let out a surprise chuckle as he leaned back in his seat with only one hand on the wheel.

She joined him with a soft laugh, "What? I can't want you to find someone that makes you happy?"

He slightly shook his head as he answered with a bit of a laugh still in his voice, "She's Trina?"

Jade slightly pursed her lips and tilted her head to the side as she answered, "That pretty much sums it up."

He snorted out a laugh and she quickly joined him a louder laugh.

A few minutes later he was pulling up into her driveway. He pulled the vehicle to a stop and glanced over to her. "We're here."

She gave him a smile and whispered, "Thanks."

He returned the smile and nodded his head. "You're welcome."

The screenwriter unbuckled the familiar seatbelt then quickly exited the vehicle. The actress shut the door behind her then leaned down to look through the rolled down window. She gave him a supportive smile and bid farewell, "Later."

He gave her a boyish smile and gave him a polite nod. "See you tomorrow."

The raven haired teenager patted over the rolled down window then turned away to walk up the driveway while he backup his car to pull back out into the street.

As he drove way he threw up a hand to wave goodbye and she unconsciously did the same with a small smile on her face.

Jade walked around to the front porch of the home and quickly unlocked the front door. She shoved her keys back into her book bag after she heard the audible click as her other hand opened the front door. She shut the door behind her and out of habit locked it. The pale actress headed for the kitchen by cutting through the living room. She stopped just before reaching the kitchen when she noticed that her mother hadn't even changed from her business attire of a woman's blazer and skirt as she partially paced about the kitchen with a cordless phone receiver to her ear.

Jade slightly frowned as she saw the worried expression on her mother's face.

Ruby was gnawing on her left thumb nail as she apparently was listening to the other person on the phone. She blew out a tired breath and nodded long to whatever was being said on the other end. She sadly whispered, "Yeah, I love you too… just be safe." She closed her eyes for a few moments then pulled the phone away from her ear and pressed the end call button.

"Mom?"

Ruby pulled her thumbnail away from her mouth and used the back of her hand to cover a sniffle. "Hey sweetheart," she whispered as her voice conveyed that she was caught by surprise by Jade appearance.

"Is everything alright?"

"Ah…" She paused to clear her throat as she sat the phone down on the kitchen island. "Ah, that was Steven… he's not going to be able to make it back for his birthday. Something's come up at the last minute and they need him. He said he's going to be gone for five weeks or so, maybe less if everything works out."

Jade bowed her head slightly then whispered, "Sorry mom. I knew you were looking forward to seeing him."

Ruby gave a half smile and shrugged a shoulder as she looked to her daughter with a resigned expression. "He's in the Air Force, that's just the way it is sometimes. I'm just sorry that he has to miss another one with Spencer and Carly."

Jade slightly frowned and glanced at the floor as she felt her sympathy for her mother turn into a sour pit in her stomach. She whispered out with a slight chill in her voice, "I don't share your sympathy for Carly."

Ruby took a deep breath then spoke gently, "I know you have problems with Carly… _very understandable ones_, I know, but this is not a time to revel in the fact that she will be missing yet another birthday with her father. There are some lines that you do not cross and this is one of them."

Jade's brow furled and looked darkly at her mother as she shouted out with disgust and threw her hand out as if she knew which direction was Seattle, "Why don't you tell her that? How many lines did she cross by manipulating Freddie with his love for her to get what she wanted or sitting on her damn hands while she let Sam outright torment and _beat on _Freddie for years?"

The raven haired beauty let out a slow breath and calmly replied, "Steven already has… _thoroughly_and Carly has realized that and has turned around her behavior."

The blue streaked hair teenager shook her head unconvinced of that claim. "And how do you know that? From what little conversation she had with Freddie that conveniently included her asking him to stay?"

"No, I talk to Spencer. He's been keeping me up to date about how things are going with her."

The pale actress blinked at that revelation. "Why?"

Ruby gave her daughter a bit of a disbelieving look as she answered with a crisp tone, "She's the daughter of my closest friends… of course I care about her. I told you before, things would be a lot different if Taylor was here, but she's not, so we all have to make do without her."

The teenager rolled her eyes and sarcastically retorted, "Yeah, maybe her daughter wouldn't have turned out to be a manipulative heartless bitch."

Ruby closed her eyes and gently shook her head. She opened her eyes and blew out a soft breath as she felt a bit of her on irritation coming up, "Do you think she's the only one that is learning from her mistakes and trying to change because of what she's lost? Do you really think you are any position to complaining that she's doing the same thing you are?"

Jade blinked and furled her brow from being caught off by the question.

The West Matriarch turned a hard gaze onto her daughter. "You don't think I've noticed how you've changed since your breakup with Beck and starting your relationship with Freddie? You and I both well know that your past behavior was partly the reason why you and Beck broke up and it had you alienated from all your friends." She took a step closer to her daughter and continued with a firm tone, "I'm not blind Jadelyn. I do read your posts on TheSlap, I do watch your videos, I do see how you interact with Caterina when she's here and now I see how things have changed _for the better_. Carly lost, you lost and now you're doing the same thing: changing for the better so neither of you won't make the same mistakes again nor lose what's important to you. Ironic you're both in the same position."

Jade took in a sharp breath from the last comment then held an impassive expression on her face. The mother and daughter remained silent for a few moments. "I think I'll head to my room for a nap... I'll see you at dinner." Jade turned and headed up the stairs without waiting for a response.

Ruby let out her own tired breath and looked to the kitchen island with a resigned expression on her face. She whispered softly, "I wish you were here Taylor..." Her eyes glanced on the phone still resting on the island and she whispered, "You be safe Steven…"

Vega Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Trina heard the alarm for the oven go off and quickly put on oven mitts. She opened the door and pulled the frozen turkey from the oven and threw the tray and it on top of the range.

"Hey baby," Mister Vega called out as he came from the hallway beside the staircase.

"I'm furious!" Trina shouted in frustration as she looked down at the bird.

"Ah well… you should call your mom," he commented as he hooked his headphones into his PearPhone and Trina slammed the oven door closed with her left foot.

"I put this stupid chicken in the over three hours ago and it still not cooked,"

Mister Vega walked over into the kitchen and around to in front of the stove. "Okay…" he started as he scratched behind his right ear, "…a couple of things. You didn't turn the oven _on_. This is a turkey." He leaned over and softly knocked on the turkey with his knuckles. "And ah, yeah it is frozen."

She whined, "What am I suppose to feed Beck?"

"Does he like turkey-cicles?" he asked with a bit of sarcasm in his voice.

"Dad!" she whined and softly patted the back of her mitt covered hand on his chest.

The L.A. police detective motioned past her towards a side door to the kitchen. "I'm going to go to the garage and run on the tred—,"

"No! You got to help me cook the turkey!"

"Sorry, I can't hear you over the music, even though this isn't playing yet," he played off dumb as he held up his PearPhone and slipped through to the garage by the kitchen entrance.

Trina stood there dumbfounded for a moment until she caught eye of the microwave and a thought occurred to her. She walked over and opened the microwave door then quickly turned back to the oven to grab the uncooked turkey. She lifted the turkey with a grunt and attempted to shove the turkey into the microwave. She shouted with a grunt, "Come on, get in there. Be a good girl and get in the microwave."

* * *

><p>She pulled the turkey out of the microwave then dragged it over to the center of the table. She quickly dropped the half-cookhalf-frozen bird on the center serving tray. As soon as the bird dropped, the door bell rang.

"Beck's here," she urgently spoke as she was caught off guard by the doorbell ringing.

She threw the apron over her shoulder and it landed on the kitchen island as she dashed through the living room and towards the door.

She rested her hand on her hip and threw her hair over her shoulder to allow her sultry expression to clearly be seen on her face as she opened the door. However, instead of her expected date, André quickly walked inside.

Trina face fell in shock for a moment at seeing the songsmith enter her house and walk to the middle of the living room. She quickly turned and followed him deeper into the living room and with a near panic to her voice she stated, "Ah, André, Tori's not here."

André waved her off, "I'm not here to see Tori."

She desperately replied, "I have a date tonight—"

"With Beck I know. I know what's going on."

"I don't understand," she responded with obvious confusion.

"Is there something wrong with me?"

She was confused by the question, but she quickly answered to reassure the songsmith, "Ah, no, nothing is wrong with you—"

"Why Beck? Is he so fantastic? Is Beck better than me?"

Trina had a desperate look on her face as she answered, "I don't know what you mean."

André palmed his cheeks and in a desperate tone asked, "Am I not handsome? Do I not have a happy go skippy personality?"

"Yeah, yeah, you do," she desperately tried to reassure him.

"Then give me a chance. Give me the chance to show you the joys of André." He pulled Trina into his arms and started singing, "Let me love, let me love you like a champion baby,"

Beck spread his hands open as he looked to the pair with a curious expression. "Hey? What's going on?"

Trina sucked in a breath and whispered with shock and fright as she righted herself up, "Beck?"

"What is going on is you were just leaving," André spoke with a firm voice as he took a few steps forward to the actor.

"I have a date with Trina. We're having chicken."

She whispered out embarrassingly, "It kind of might be turkey now."

André put his hands over his heart and eagerly spoke, "Turkey's my favorite."

Beck shouted as he pointed to his own chest, "Yo, Trina likes me."

"Maybe I'm about to change Trina's mind?" he counted confidently.

Beck pointed behind him to the open front door and instructed the songsmith, "Dude, go."

André snorted out and indignantly replied, "Don't you tell me what to do you—you Canadian."

Trina came running up beside the teenager and took a step onto the end of the right couch. "Boys, this isn't very nice—"

Beck raised a finger and pointed to André's face. "I always had a feeling you were anti-Canadian."

André took a step forward and opened up his arms as he countered, "So, what are you going to do about it? Hey? Hit me with a hockey bat?"

"Will you tell this puck-nut that you like me?" Beck demanded as he pointed at André.

"Puck-nut?"

"Trina made chicken for me," Beck insisted as he stared down his slightly shorter friend.

"Didn't she hear what she said? She made a turkey," he countered as he slapped the back of his right hand into the palm of his left hand. He turned and looked to the older Vega sister and implored while still holding on to his irritation at Beck. "Why would you want to date a Canadian who doesn't know one food bird from another?"

Trina nervously smiled as she suggested, "I have an idea: How about the three of us eat the turkey together?"

Beck pointed to himself, "No, you pick me," then pointed to André, "or you pick him."

The songsmith turned to face Beck and pointed towards the door. "Or maybe I pick you up and toss your ass right out that door."

Beck smirked as he turned to face his friend then grabbed him by the collar. "I would love to see you try."

"Boys!"

"Trina?" a voice called from the open front door.

The friends turned to look at the door with Robbie walking inside holding a bouquet of flowers.

"Trina, I brought you these—" He smiled as he commented with a cheerful tone, "Did someone microwave a turkey?"

Trina stared at him in absolute shock with her eyes wide and mouth slightly hanging open.

"Who are those flowers for?" Beck demanded as he let go of André and took a step towards Robbie.

"Those better be for Beck," the songsmith followed up.

"They're for Trina."

Trina stared at the curly haired teenager with a look of abject shock. "What?"

"Well, I heard some boys in the locker room ask you out, so I thought—"

André grabbed a poker from the fireplace and poked at the curly haired teenager. "Look out!"

Robbie dashed away towards the kitchen as André dropped the poker and Beck right on his tail and shouted, "Trina loves me, not you idiots!"

Once all three boys reached the kitchen, André picked Robbie off of his feet several times. Beck pulled them apart and the sound of Beck's right fist obviously not being pulled colliding with André's face reverberated throughout the room.

André responded with just as loud left cross that sent the Canadian born into Robbie then bouncing away towards Trina.

Trina shouted from the sidelines. "Boys! Don't fight over me!"

The songsmith grabbed the flowers still in Robbie's hands and threw them to the ground. Robbie attempted to flee back to the living room, but Andra was able to grab him by the waist and throw him down to the ground behind the island.

Beck shouted, "André no!" Trina tried to struggle out of his grip, but he held her tight as he screamed, "Don't look, it's disgusting!"

André grabbed a red teakettle off the kitchen counter by the stove and brought it over his head. He swung down at Robbie's head from the best Trina could tell.

Trina was finally able to wrestle out of Beck's grip and fled to the door to the garage. "Dad! Come quick! They're killing each other!"

Once the older Vega sister disappeared through the door, the three teenagers started stifling their laughter as they quickly made their way to the living room.

Trina held on to her father's wrist as she pulled him past the door threshold. She pointed to the floor, but was shocked as she attempted to explain, "Then André started hitting Robbie with the teakettle and…"

The three teenagers were behind the couch holding up puppets: André with a kitten, Robbie with a queen and Beck with a king.

"What's going on?"

André was the first to speak, "We're doing a puppet show."

"I am the king," Beck spoke up with his puppet.

Robbie finished with his female puppet, "I am the queen."

André finished, "I'm the little pussy cat, meow."

Trina pointed to the three. "I swear I just—then—"

Mister Vega blew out a soft sigh through his nose then turned to look at his eldest daughter. "Just promise me when you go to college, it will be someplace, far, far away," he commented then put his earphones back on and started his way back to the garage."

Trina turned to look back at the teenagers with a completely confused expression on her face.

Beck raised the puppet to Trina's eye level and asked with a royal sounding tone, "Trina, did you learn your lesson?"

"About telling lies?" Robbie asked with a high pitch tone.

"Meow," André finished.

The three started laughing and jumping on the couch then running out the front door with a look of total confusion on Trina's face.

Chancellor's Office  
>Yerba Capital, Yerba<br>Thursday, November 3, 2011

Yerbanian Chancellor hid under his desk as he heard repeated gunfire outside his door and down the hallway. He would hear the occasional one or two shots from his guards then the return fire of automatic weapons from the Americans.

He cursed that he had been so cheap with only giving his guards revolvers.

As the gunfire approached, he cursed again the fact that he had originally played games with the US Embassy about releasing those American kids during the summer.

He cursed himself for arresting them in the first place.

It had been the final incentive to get the Americans to side with the rebels even four months later. There had been calls for him to be put on trial for war crimes by the international community and the Americans were more than happy to come to get him as payback.

The gunfire finally stopped and it got eerily silent outside of his office.

The Chancellor slowly raised his head over the top of his desk. He had finally got eye that American girl hit with her shoe fixed with a flown in doctor, but he didn't like what he saw with it as the double doors blew off of their hinges and a number of camouflaged clad men fanned out with their weapons raised to secure the room. He immediately ducked his head back down and clenched his revolver tighter in his right hand.

The Chancellor gathered enough courage to sneak a quick peak over the top of the desk to see the apparent leader (who strangely bared a resemblance to that Carly girl's brother from that silly American web-show he enjoyed) motion with a nod of his head for an Airman to circle one side of the desk and a SEAL to circle the other side.

He took a deep breath as the thought that he wasn't going to die like Bin Laden crossed his mind. He cocked the hammer back on his revolver then twisted in his spot behind the desk to rise to his feet and bring the weapon up at the leader of the men, but was far too slow as the Airman was already training his weapon and looking down his sights on the Chancellor.

On last shot echoed throughout the room.

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Friday, November 4, 2011

Jade and Ruby West were sitting together on the couch in the living room with Jade on her laptop as it was approaching seven P.M. Jade blew out a breath as she navigated her cursor to bring up a browser window then typed the web address. She had connected her laptop to the widescreen television with the intention of watching the video with her mother.

Her intended website was brought up on the television then she hit the control to maximize the video screen. It only remained black for a moment until Ruby saw a familiar old art studio turned into a performance studio with a brunette and blonde teenager on the screen.

_Carly Shay gave a small smile as she looked into the camera and whispered, "Hi."_

Jade caught from the corner of her eye that her mother was frowning and wearing a mournful expression at seeing Carly's face. The West daughter kept her mouth closed as she refrained from making any comments.

_Sam Puckett forced a cheerful smile on her face as she shouted, "And I'm Sam!"_

Carly was able to push through her depressed mode and perked up as she spoke, "Now hold on to your butter beans for this is—"

Shay Apartment  
>Seattle, WA<br>Friday, November 4, 2011

"iCarly!" both girls shouted.

Sam wore a big grin on her face as she continued, "We've noticed something about pineapples."

"They're usually naked," Carly whispered seductively into the camera. "And we are going to dress up some real pretty."

Sam smirked as she partially eyed the brunette co-host, "No, we're not; I'll tell you what we are doing."

"We have a little surprise for you!" Freddie shouted with a smile on his face as he walked from behind the back waiting area to the right of the prop car with his arms wide open.

Carly turned and looked to him with complete shock on her face. She blinked and her mouth opened and closed several times. "Freddie?" she whispered in barely audible.

"Hello," he answered with a big grin and friendly tone. He brought a hand to his chest and quickly supplied, "I'm not the surprise."

He walked between the girls and looked into the camera. "As you may know, Carly's dad is in the U.S. Air Force. Due to circumstances beyond our control, he was unable to make it for a visit during his birthday."

She whispered with a tight smile on her face, "This is a little cruel."

He chuckled for a moment then leaned a little to her left ear. "I didn't miss work and fly up here on my dime to be cruel," he whispered in an equally tight voice while maintaining his grin and looking into the camera.

The dirty blonde had a smile plastered on her face as she picked up, "We have arranged for Carly to throw her dad a Birthday iParty."

"Via the internet," Freddie finished and realized he was making a slight dig at André.

Carly whispered sheepishly to Sam, "I told you he was at some military base for the next five weeks. There's no way we can contact him."

"There is," Freddie answered confidently with a bit of smugness to his voice and a raised finger.

Sam laughed as she motioned to behind the camera, "Now Freddie will establish contact with her dad, Colonel Shay."

Freddie walked behind Brad holding the camera and went to the laptop sitting on Brad's tech-cart and started typing on the keyboard.

"What?" Carly asked floored and in complete disbelief of what was happening.

Gibby shouted, "Spencer, get out here!"

"I'm out here!" the lanky artist shouted as he came around from the back as well to appear in front of the camera. He was wearing a dark blue business suit that fit him well.

Gibby grabbed a second camera already on tripod and walked it over next to the car prop and under the swing out monitor.

"Connecting to overseas Air Force base," Freddie commented as he typed away on Brad's laptop.

The standby circular picture was replaced with a video feed filled with snow and interference.

"What's up with the picture?" Sam asked with curiosity instead of her usual accusatorial tone when something wasn't happening exactly the way Freddie had planned.

"One second," he answered as he attempted to clean up the picture by typing furiously on the keyboard.

"Colonel Shay, can you see us?" he repeated as he typed into the chatbox.

"Can he?" Carly asked eagerly.

"He can see us," Freddie answered just as excitedly as the Colonel answered with the chatbox.

"Hey dad! I'm a lawyer."

Carly slightly admonished her brother with a soft laugh, "He knows you're not a lawyer."

Spencer shook his and blew out a breath.

"Why can't we see him?" Sam turned back to Freddie.

Freddie glanced up from the screen and answered with a shake of his head, "I don't know, I can't get a clear video signal."

"But he can see and hear everything we are saying?" Spencer asked with a concerned tone.

"Yes," he read off the laptop monitor. "I'll put the message window up on the big screen."

Freddie quickly typed away on the screen and the snow filled screen was replaced with a green chatbox.

"Dad I love you so much!" Carly shouted.

_Hi Snug Bug._

"He called me snug bug," Carly giggled excitedly as she grasped onto Sam's arm.

"Cute nickname," Freddie laughed off.

The dirty blonde shouted, "Hey Colonel Shay?"

_Hey Samantha. How's your mom?_

Sam answered a little embarrassingly and confused, "Same as always."

A second later, his text appeared on the screen: _I'm so sorry. _

Sam gave a half smirk and a nod of her head.

Spencer dashed behind the studio for a moment then rolled out a birthday cake in the shape of an F-22 Fighter. "Get excited!" the oldest Shay sibling shouted as he brought the cake into view of the second camera.

All of them gathered around the cake and started singing, "Happy Birthday Colonel Shay. Today is the day you were born…"

"Gibby!"

"We wish you could be here with us so we could give you a hug, give you a hug." They all motioned to cake. "We bought a cake shaped like a plane and paid for it with your credit card!"

The next moment, balloons started falling from the ceiling.

Spencer pulled out a small, red remote control and shouted, "Now I will light the candles on three." He pressed the button on his remote, but instead of the candles lighting up, the cake exploded and sending it in pieces flying all over the place.

A text message from Shay appeared on the screen: _Way to go Spencer._

Spencer held his tongue and simply blinked as some cake fell off of his face.

Freddie walked back around to the laptop and commented, "Guys, I don't think I can hold this connection much longer."

The Shay siblings started arguing over which one of them should be the one to bid farewell to their father. Spencer finally insisted that she do it and the brunette turned her attention back to the camera and blew out a breath. She smiled as she spoke, "Dad, I really wish we were together, but this almost feels like we are. I'm really proud of you. Happy Birthday, I love you."

The screen displayed his next text: _I love you too_.

"And I love you guys too," she continued with wrapping an arm around Sam's waist and Freddie's shoulders.

Freddie bit his tongue at her comment about loving him, but kept a smile on his face as he realized that several hundred thousand people were watching him.

A message appeared on the screen and Freddie commented, "That's it we lost the connection."

Carly pulled Sam into a hug and the dirty blonde wrapped her arms around the brunette.

Spencer stared up at the ceiling. "Oh man, there's cake on the ceiling."

"Where?" Freddie asked curiously as he started looking up at the ceiling.

A glop of cake fell as Gibby looked up and dropped on his face.

"Oh, there," Freddie finished in a lame tone.

Beck Oliver's RV  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Friday, November 4, 2011

Beck rested against the headboard of his bed as he watched iCarly signoff on his laptop on his lap. He smiled warmly as he saw the happy look on Carly's face instead of the memories of her nearly crying herself to sleep over the phone late Wednesday night.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. This one was seriously one to reveal some character, some secrets and advance some plot. More is obviously to come with Freddie being back in Seattle for maybe the weekend and some fallout from Beck's stunt in regards to Trina. Oh, it is fairly obvious now who Beck has been in contact with all this time with secret text messages. Also, I'm happy the last Victorious episode aired as I was editing this chapter as I originally had Cat pull a piece of candy from a nondescript bag to hand out. A little weird, but I thought it was funny. I will hopefully post the next update next Friday, but no promises. It might be the following Friday.<p> 


	24. Chapter 24

Author's Note: Hello dear readers. I hope you had a nice week. Mine certainly was better than last week. I saw last week's iCarly… I wasn't happy with it to say the least. Since this story is written and planned in outline form several chapter ahead, it allows me to adjust and be flexible with the storytelling as permitted, so inspired parts from iPear Store wear easily inserted in this chapter as well as some more of iMtFL (sorry, but the First Lady isn't in this chapter), so slight spoiler warning.

Language and Violence Warning.

Oh, and you don't have to be shy with what you think. On with the story.

* * *

><p>Chapter 24<p>

Shay Apartment  
>Seattle, WA<br>Friday, November 4, 2011

Freddie leaned back in his chair as he sat at the end of the kitchen table with his back to the stove with a cup of soda in his right hand. Carly sat across from him with a smile plastered on her face that she had worn since talking to her father and the rest of the web-broadcast. Sam and Brad sat beside each other with their backs to the kitchen's island while Gibby sat on the other side of the table. Spencer was busy at the stove preparing spaghetti tacos to celebrate the occasion.

Carly shook her head with mild disbelief as she cradled her drink in her hands on the table. She whispered out still a little bit in shock about how the night had turned out, "How did you pull that off? Getting to speak with dad?"

Freddie cracked a self-assured smile. "The details would bore you to tears, so just accept that I was able to pull it off and work my magic."

Carly glanced between Freddie and Sam and asked, "So you two planned this?"

The former two-thirds of the trio spared each other brief glances then Freddie answered, "Well, when Mrs. West got the call that your dad wasn't going to make it and she wouldn't have to fly up, the idea occurred to me… I was able to get up with your dad then with Spencer and Sam and so on and so forth to set it up."

Gibby's tone was laced with curiosity as he asked, "Jade's mom was going to come up? Don't you think that would have been a little awkward? After everything?"

Spencer surprisingly spoke up from the stove as he stirred the spaghetti in the pot, "Not something you need to be concerned about."

"What?" he asked as he glanced to the rest at the table to see if he was the only one confused.

Brad spoke up, "He's got a point Spencer," then looked to Freddie with a guarded expression.

Freddie maintained his smile as his replacement made eye contact with him. The former iCarly Tech-Producer realized that Brad was probably told more of the story since he was here last time about how things had deteriorate between the trio and what happened that night in his hotel room, but he seriously doubted that Sam would be completely honest about the incident but instead spin it in a far more positive light and Jade into the bad one. She had never really owned up to anything she did, why should she start now when it could sabotage her relationship with Brad? He could only guess what Carly could have told him.

The artist shook his head as he glanced over his shoulder to look at the replacement tech-producer with an expression that suggested that he and Gibby should really drop the topic. In a rarely heard firm voice, Spencer countered, "No, he doesn't."

Freddie glanced between them and with the look on Spencer's face, the tech-producer guessed that Spencer's motivations for reigning in where this conversation could turn was not just out of not spoiling the mood, but Gibby and Brad were touching on something deeply personal. He briefly wondered what the artist thought about his father and Mrs. West's relationship, especially since he had witnessed far more of it when his mother was living.

Gibby tried to laugh off the disconcerting expression on Spencer's face then rested a hand on Freddie's right shoulder and laughed out, "So, Freddie, what have you been up to?"

Freddie glanced at the large hand resting on his shoulder then looked up to meet Gibby's eyes with a slightly annoyed stare. "Gibby, get your hand off of me."

Gibby pulled his hand off Freddie's shoulder as if he had just touched a hot iron. "Whoa, little harsh buddy?"

The Hollywood Arts student shook his head. "Gibby, I may be trying to forgive everyone, but I'm tired of pretending people are my friends when they're not. We're not buddies and we are not friends."

The taller teenager snapped back a little offended, "Hey, I'm your friend."

Freddie shook his head with a slight frown forming on his face. "We are not doing this right now. We can deal with all our chizz tomorrow. Tonight is Carly and Spencer's night and let's leave everything else outside that door for tonight."

The iCarly addition put on an offended expression and began, "Hey—"

"Gibby," Carly snapped at taller teenager.

Gibby got the message from Carly's eyes and slight frown she wore that she wasn't going to put up with anything at the moment.

Freddie blew out a breath and glanced to see that Brad wasn't exactly happy either. He ignored his replacement and continued, "Well, what have I been up to? I've been busy: school, work, crazy happenstances. You know the usual. Scenery may have changed, but still getting into trouble."

Carly's smile that she had been wearing since talking to her dad fell right back into place as she asked, "Like being in the 'Parade Parade'?"

Freddie raised a curious eyebrow.

As Spencer was draining the spaghetti, he called out, "I was watching it and saw everyone, but we didn't see you."

He started laughing as he looked down at his glass, "That's an interesting story just in of itself… I was driving the float. That's why you didn't see me."

Carly raised a curious eyebrow. "Why were you driving? Couldn't they have gotten someone else to drive it so you could be on the float with them?"

Freddie shrugged a shoulder. "I didn't want to be the center of attention. I've been keeping a low profile and suddenly seeing me might cause some to focus on me instead of them."

Sam snorted out a laugh as she sat her own drink down on the table, "Low profile? You made a film with Jade and now you're having _Nevel_ advertise it for you."

The Hollywood Arts tech-producer leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table and cradled his glass then looked to his former abuser with a raised eyebrow and spoke to her as if she was a small child, "We go to a performing arts high school… we perform. It's not the first short-film Jade's made and it won't be the last one. Maybe you should have watched her interview then you'd know why she made it?" He looked to Brad and finish, "Especially about the importance of appreciating the person behind the camera that makes the show possible."

The sandy blonde teenager clenched his jaw tight as Freddie saw he hit a nerve by bringing up the fact that Brad was left out of being interviewed about iCarly. "Don't feel too bad Brad; I came up with the name of the show and I still didn't get a phone call."

His statement didn't apparently make Brad feel any better. Freddie didn't mean to open up that apparent wound, but a part of him couldn't help pointing out the lack of apparent appreciation for Brad.

Sam frowned at his response then countered, "She still gave the interview to Nevel."

He snorted out and flippantly responded, "He offered, she accepted. He still has an audience and his word does carry some weight even after his last incident with the guy in the wheelchair."

Sam responded disbelievingly, "So you just let her?"

Freddie blinked at the dirty blonde and gave her a look questioning if she was serious. "I don't _let_ her do anything. She doesn't need my permission to do what she wants. She does what she wants, when she wants. The details about why she agreed to be interviewed by Nevel are not your concern."

Spencer interrupted whatever Sam was going to say by shouting, "Okay, I have spaghetti tacos!" He walked to the table holding the bowl of spaghetti in one hand and a tray of tacos in the other. Slipping through the corner between Freddie and Brad, Spencer sat the bowl and tray down on the table with surprise skill. He quickly turned back to the stove and brought over a small pot of spaghetti sauce to sit on a small mat on the table. He happily shouted, "Dig in!"

Freddie laughed as he picked up a taco shell, "I haven't had a spaghetti taco in about what? I think today would make it a month ago."

Carly curiously asked as she grabbed the spoon for the spaghetti, "Do you fix them?"

"No, they had them at Friday night concert at Hollywood Arts. I guess the chef is a fan or saw it on FoodTV."

Sam pointed out, "I thought you worked on Fridays?"

Freddie shrugged a shoulder and lifted a corner of his mouth as he answered, "I took the night off for a date. They were good, but not as good as Spencer's."

After Gibby prepared himself a taco, he picked up where they left off before Spencer brought the food, "I doubt Nevel did the interview out of the goodness of his heart."

Freddie cracked a smile as he finished preparing his own taco. "No, he didn't. He used us to try to help him get his popularity back and we used him for publicity."

Carly bowed her head slightly as she looked at the brown eyed teenager and spoke in concern, "You know it has to be a trick. The way he acted to the guy at the Groovy Smoothie proves he really didn't change."

Freddie casually answered, "I really don't care if he changes. He's just a means to an end, but I know he won't double-cross me."

Sam snorted out in disbelief as she tried to munch her food down. She was successful enough to get enough food down to mumble out, "You just trust him?"

The former Seattleite shook his head as he sat his own taco down on his plate, "Hardly. I held all the cards and he knows that I'll make him regret it if he tries anything stupid. He doesn't get anymore mercy… not from me. As one of my… fans… friends pointed out, the most merciful thing you can do to a rabid animal is put it down… and I will put him down if he tries anything. Jade's not a target for him." He turned his gaze to Carly and finished, "We've been far too lenient to him after all he's done to us. If he ever tries anything else… you have to let Sam put him down so hard that he'll _never_ try anything again."

The brunette wore a nervous expression as she saw the seriousness in his eyes, but nodded along. Carly spoke after taking a bit from his taco and swallowing, "I thought it was good…. Jade's play I mean. A little… dark for me, but I liked it."

Freddie laughed trying his best not to choke on his own taco. He swallowed the bit and replied, "Jade has a… _unique_ perspective on life."

"That's an understatement," Sam mumbled under her breath, but Freddie didn't take the bait.

"We would have promoted it… if we would have known you wanted some publicity for it," Carly whispered cautiously. "We could do it for her next film since you said she was going to do another one in the future."

Sam stopped in mid-chew and looked to Carly. She blinked while she stared as if the brunette had lost her mind.

"Ah… well… ah…" Freddie trailed off as he tried to process her offer. He took a quick sip from his soda to clear his throat then hesitantly spoke, "I'll talk to Jade about it."

She gave him a small smile in understanding that it wasn't his decision to make, but a girl's who may still not like her.

The second half of iCarly hostesses snapped out, "We are not promoting her next film."

Brad spoke up quickly just as surprised with the tone of his voice, "I'm with Sam on this one. We're not doing that. Not after…"

Carly frowned as she stared at the couple. "Yes we are if Jade accepts the offer, we will promote anything she makes. Sam can step out of the frame and if you don't want to hold the camera then Spencer can do—"

Brad snapped back, "You can't do that; she scarred Sam up—"

Freddie interrupted with a flippant tone, "After Sam nearly tore my arm out of my socket and nearly gave me a concussion." He had noticed that Sam was continuing to wear makeup to try to at least reduce the visibility of her scar on her upper right cheek. He also noticed that the spots were her hair were torn out had grown a little further out since his last visit, but she was wearing hair extensions to cover the gaps in her maim of hair.

Brad immediately turned his attention to the former iCarly Tech-Producer. "You called her a bitch. You thought she wasn't going to respond?"

Freddie calmly replied, "So that's perfect justification to throw me over her shoulder after breaking into my hotel room to try to convince me that I should _date_ _her_ before she moved on to _you_? She was a bitch at the time. I don't know about now…" He turned his head and looked to Sam for a moment then continued, "Who am I kidding, she's probably still a bitch with the way she treats people. Tell me, has she gotten into a rematch with the soccer team?"

Brad was on his feet in an instant with chair sliding out from his so hard it took bumping into the kitchen island to stop the chair.

Carly sucked in a sharp breath at watching her replacement tech-producer react to the comment while Gibby looked nervous as to what to do, Spencer becoming uncomfortable in his seat apparently ready to get up and Sam remained eerily quiet.

Freddie calmly took another bite from his taco and slowly chewed as Brad looked down at Freddie with rage filled eyes. Once Freddie finished chewing his morsel, he glanced up at the taller teenager and spoke with a casual tone, "Either swing on me or sit down."

"Apologize to her," he demanded.

Freddie gave him a sad smile and slightly shook his head as he answered, "I know she's your girlfriend and you want to defend her… I have a friend back in L.A. that would do the same if you said an ill word about Cat, but what I said about Sam is the truth. She has inflicted nothing but pain and suffering on me with a smile on her face for her own personal enjoyment while I did nothing but try to be her friend. I'm not apologizing for speaking the truth and your inability to deal with that fact is not my problem."

Brad slightly edged around the table to get closer to Freddie's sitting position and stare down at him.

Freddie remained unimpressed as he turned back to his taco and took another bite.

The entire apartment remained quite for a few moments waiting for Brad's next move, but Carly's soft whisper broke the tension, "Sit down Brad."

The sandy blonde teenager remained standing for a few more seconds until Carly snapped out with the same harsh tone she used on Glenn when they visited Dingo Studios: "Sit down Brad!"

Everyone around the table turned to look at the harsh and intimidating glare from the youngest Shay child.

Brad swallowed as the brunette held her stare on the taller teenager. He quickly retook his seat and maintained his glare upon his boss. He asked with a flippant tone, "You're just going to let him get away with that?"

Carly set her jaw tight and met the sandy blonde's eyes without flinching. She responded in a tone that suggested that it annoyed her just to answer him, "What do you suggest I do, even if I had the inclination to do anything which I don't? Try to make him feel guilty for something that he truly believes in his heart? Good luck with that. Let Sam hit him like I have in the past to get him to say something he doesn't want to say? He'll put her in the hospital. Let you hit him? He'd pound you silly _and_ my dad would have Spencer ban you from the apartment. Throw him out? My father would send me to my Uncle's for another two weeks to try to help me get my priorities straight."

Brad snorted out with disgust and shook his head. "So he'd punish you for picking your _friends_ over the guy that walked out on you?"

The pale brunette frowned, but quickly replied, "No, that I'd throw Freddie out of his home when he's been given Freddie an open invitation. Dad gets the final say of what happens in this home and there are things that he's not going to put up with even if he's not here."

Freddie raised a surprised eyebrow at hearing that bit of news.

The pair stared at one another for a few more seconds until Sam spoke up, "I'm suddenly not hungry. I think mama will go ahead and head out."

Brad glanced to his girlfriend with a curious expression.

She shrugged a shoulder and suggested, "The night is still young; we can go see a movie then we can grab something to eat after."

Freddie caught the look in Sam's eyes that suggested that Brad really shouldn't argue with her.

"Yeah, okay. A movie sounds great," he relented, but there was still some edge in his voice suggesting that he wasn't comfortable just leaving with the situation unresolved.

Sam stood up from her seat and looked to the oldest Shay child. "Great tacos Spencer." She looked to her friend and gave her a quick hug and whispered loud enough for everyone to hear, "Glad you got to talk to your dad."

"Thanks," the brunette whispered then the dirty blonde turned to look at Freddie to acknowledge him, "Freddie."

He gave a slight nod of his head and responded in return, "Sam."

The couple turned and started cutting through the living room.

"I think I'll go ahead and go," Gibby coughed out nervously and pointed to the door. He didn't wait for the Shay children or Freddie to speak before he was leaving his half eaten meal and was right on Sam and Brad's heels out the door.

Freddie took a deep breath as the door shut behind the three. He looked to Carly to meet her eyes and whispered, "Sorry… I didn't mean for things to deteriorate like that, but I can't let him put all the blame on—"

Carly raised a hand. "I understand. She's your girlfriend and I was there remember? I know you still feel a lot of resentment towards us for what happened."

"Yeah well…" He cracked a smile as he finished, "Things can change."

His words brought a smile to her face and a shine back to her eyes.

After about another half hour of eating with just Freddie and the Shay children light conversation and them catching Freddie up with how things had been going in Seattle, Carly was lead Freddie into her bedroom, but he paused as he reached the threshold to her room.

She turned and noticed his apprehension of looking inside the room. "Ah… we can go up to the studio?"

He shook his head and let out a nervous laugh, "No, it's alright. It's just… been awhile."

"Yeah," she whispered then softly bit her bottom lip.

He blew out a breath then took a step inside.

Standing in the bedroom after so long felt a bit surreal. A little more than four months had passed since he had been in the brunette's room, but a part of him felt like a lifetime had passed. A cursory glance around the room didn't reveal any significant changes to the room. He started slowly pacing about to see if he could notice any changes. He walked up the stairs and around her bed to look over her banister. He glanced over to see that a photo he had taken to distribute at the last Webicon was still sitting on her window banister, but moved to be right by her bed instead of further down near her closet as was its usual resting place. He filed that bit of information away in his head to think on the significance, if there was one, of her moving his picture to rest beside her bed.

He walked further down and hopped off to the floor by the closet then continued around her desk. Her post board has several pictures he remembered, but there was another one of him smiling towards the camera. He turned away from the broad and walked around her chair at her desk and stopped when looking over the guitar. He casually commented as he ran his fingers down some of the strings, "I've learned to play over the last few months."

Carly raised a curious eyebrow. "Oh?"

Freddie cracked a partial smile as he looked away from the guitar to the web-hostess. "Every student at Hollywood Arts is required to learn how to play an instrument. André's been giving me lessons on Wednesday afternoons. If I was going to have to learn how to play an instrument why not pick a guitar? What teenager guy doesn't want to secretly play one?"

"Are you good? I mean… that didn't come out right," she snorted out embarrassingly and shook her head.

His laughed out instantly easing Carly's concern that she had offended him. "I know what you mean. Tori wasn't good with the French horn or the piccolo. It took her a while to get good on the piccolo. Why she just didn't learn to play the piano from André I do not know." He shook his head and smiled to her as he continued, "I'm getting pretty good. I might play a concert with André in the next few weeks. It's up in the air for the moment."

"When you do, have someone film it. We can link it to the site or we could post it."

Freddie broke eye contact for a moment then cautiously met her gaze. "I'll let you know."

She gave a relieved nod that he at least kept the possibility of her offer open.

The pair stared at one another for a few moments until she motioned toward the couch. She cracked an awkward smile as she asked, "Care to have a seat? We can go fishing."

Freddie chuckled and gave a respectful bow of his head. "Fishing would be nice."

They had a seat on her couch and she pulled a pair of rods from under the table then handed one to Freddie. They plopped the ends of their lines in the water coffee table and waited for the magnetic fishes to approach. They sat in silence for a few moments until Carly spoke up, "How do you like it at the Pear Store? Sell a lot of things?"

Freddie blew out a breath as he watched a fish slowly approach the end of his line. "I'm enjoying it, but I don't do a lot of selling since I'm not really a people person that way unless some fangirl comes in the store and sees me. When that happens I can nearly sell them anything; I try not to do that, but at times they are insistent. Other than that, I'm almost exclusively work in the Brilliance Bar, you know like Ashley here, or I do a few workshops. I know how to fix what comes in and got a crash course on how to fix the phones and pads, so I'm perfect for that job."

"Ah?" she answered with a grin on her face. "I'm glad you're happy at it."

"Thanks," he nodded along.

Carly turned her head slightly to glance at him with a smile and whispered, "I can't thank you enough for what you did tonight; I can't tell you how much that means to me."

Freddie gave her a respectful nod. He took a slow breath and smiled. "You're welcome… it was kind of… interesting being on the show."

She turned her attention back to the table. "It was… I've missed you on it."

Freddie blinked as he kept his focus on the table, "Yet you whitewashed me from the show."

"What?" she softly snapped more out of confusion than malice.

He calmly answered, "Nevel pointed something out to me during our… negotiations to get to interview Jade: you act like I was never on the show."

He heard her audibly swallow, but didn't turn his head to face her. A moment later she answered, "Yes, that was a conscious decision on my part."

Freddie slightly frowned. He turned his head to meet her eyes and had a slight edge to his voice that he really didn't intend, "Why?"

She didn't flinch under his gaze, but wore an even expression. "Because it hurts too much with the reminders… after we started rehearsals before we went back on the air after I got back from the Dorfmans, I realized how you had a hand in everything… there wasn't a thing about the show that didn't have at least your fingerprints on and it hurt without you here. So, I went about cutting everything I could get away with that you touched while still keep the show recognizable. iCarly has always been an escape from life and I'm already reminded everyday that you're not here, but more than a thousand miles away with a brand new life. I didn't do it to try to spite you, I just… I want a little peace for half an hour a week from all the mistakes that got me here."

Freddie turned his attention away from her and looked down at the water coffee table. He could feel her eyes on him for a few more moments before he saw from the corner of his eye that she was looking down at the table. He blew out a soft breath and whispered, "Peace is an elusive thing to find… especially when you are haunted by your past… I understand."

He heard her blow out a relieved breath through her nose.

A fish started wander over to the end of his line and finally attached to the end. He lifted the fish up with a mild smile on his face. The color shifted on the fish from yellow to orange as he pulled it out of the water. "I got one," he laughed off softly.

She softly giggled at looking him wave the fish about the air. "Yes you did."

He cocked an eyebrow and gave her a boyish grin. "You think I should throw it back?"

"Yeah, he's not big enough to eat."

The brown eyed teenager laughed then sat the fish back in the water to go floating away. He put the fishing rod back in the water and the pair started again. He put on a small smile as he thought about what he was going to say. "I'm not sure how to start."

Carly took a shallow breath then held it, instinctively knowing that Freddie's next words were going to profound.

He laughed out softly, "I guess from the start… The last time we talked you wanted me to give you a chance for me to forgive you…"

"Yes?"

He could hear the desperation in her voice that she tried to cover in her answer, but he respectfully ignored it and looked up directly into her eyes and finished, "I'm ready to try and making it possible for you to talk to you dad wasn't just for him but a way to let you know that."

Carly took in a sharp breath and subconsciously lowered the fishing rod.

Freddie pushed on, "Even after everything, I don't want to hate you Carly. I can't keep being angry and resentful towards you… or myself for what happened between us… between all of us. I want to move past the anger and hatred and live my life."

"But that won't be here? Would we be included in your life?"

He shook his head. "No… Los Angeles is… I'm very happy in L.A. I have a life in L.A. that I don't want to leave. If you are asking can we be friends? I don't know, but let's just take this first step and see where it goes? Okay?"

Carly nodded, but he could see the sadness in her eyes as well as the relief in the change in their relationship. She leaned forward and pulled him into a hug.

He sucked in a sharp breath from the sudden contact of her arms around him and his nose suddenly nuzzling in her brown locks.

She whispered into his shoulder, "I'm sorry Freddie."

It took him a moment, but he slightly patted her back. He whispered out as he felt his words taking a weight off of his shoulders, "I know you are Carly, I know."

Shay Apartment  
>Seattle, WA<br>Saturday, November 5, 2011

Freddie sat cattycorner to Carly with Gibby sitting across from him as the three were eating lunch at the Shay kitchen table.

Sam was playing with one of the left over balloons and helium tanks that Spencer hadn't had the chance to return. She put an end of a balloon to the nozzle and filled the balloon up then quickly tied the end off.

Brad was sitting on the couch watching whatever he and Sam were watching before she turned her attention to the tank.

"…don't appreciate you saying we're not friends. I don't like it that you just cut me out of your life too," Gibby finished his statement after wanting to pick up where they left off last night about the definition of friendship.

Freddie held his sandwich as he glanced downward at his plate for a moment then looked back up at the taller teenager. He tilted his head slightly to the side and wore a patient expression. "Gibby… I have had plenty of time to compare this life I left behind and what I have now and you fall very short of the people that are my friends."

"That's pretty low Freddie."

Freddie ignored the stare of the larger teen and continued, "But accurate… you accused me of going behind your back and cheating on Tasha and was ready to 'beat the fudge out of me' for it. You didn't accept my word or Tasha's word; you were ready to pound me. Remember?" Freddie snorted out and shook his head as he continued, "You pulled the same stunt you _accused me_ of doing when I was interested in Patrice then had the nerve to say that you were suddenly non-exclusive with Tasha and openly cheating on her. You did her wrong and you did me wrong and you have the nerve to call that friendship? I call it hypocrisy, but I can forgive you for that, but I'm not interested in trying to reestablish a friendship so you can stab me in the back the next time it would benefit you."

Gibby tightened his jaw as he stared at the leaner teenager.

"Don't get mad at me for your own actions Gibby. You chose to cheat and you chose to go after a girl I was clearly interested in pursuing and about to go on a date with regardless that I was supposedly your friend."

"Oh, but Tori is your friend? She cheated with Steven behind Carly's back? Do you have a problem with that?"

Freddie frowned as he snapped in defense of the younger Vega sister, "She did no such thing and you know it. She didn't know about Carly and she was just as much a victim of Steven as was Carly. You don't know a thing about Tori, so you should be careful what accusations you throw at _my friend_."

The teenagers stared at one another for a few moments as Carly nervously looked on the pair. She had seen that look in Freddie's eyes in L.A. and knew he was not going to back down or afraid of Gibby.

Gibby finally broke eye contact with Freddie and mumbled something under his breath then turned back to his sandwich.

The three went back to eating their lunch with Freddie wearing a satisfying expression on his face.

The multiple hissing sound of blowing up balloons finally caught Carly's attention. The brunette looked over her shoulder and over the kitchen counter with a raised eyebrow at seeing what Sam was doing with the helium tank. She stood up and walked around the counter and curiously asked the blonde, "Sam what are you doing?"

Sam casually replied, "Oh, just tying Freddie's phone to a balloon."

Freddie brow furled in an instant and reached into his HA athletic jacket pocket hanging on the back of the chair. He found his pocket empty and turned to glare at her. He immediately stood from his seat and walked around the counter to stand beside Carly in the living room.

The dirty blonde smirked as she released the balloon and it floated to the ceiling.

Freddie calmly asked, "Sam?"

"Oh alright," she smiled out her response then raised a straw directed at the balloon then blew hard on one end of the straw.

The balloon popped and the phone dropped on the wooden coffee table and shattered into several pieces.

Freddie looked to Sam, who was wearing a smirk, then at the shattered phone then back up to the blonde. Freddie wore a big grin on his face as he sarcastically commented, "Yes, this is what I would have to look forward to coming back: more of my chizz broken." His grin slid off his face and took a step forward as he spoke, "I think I'll break your phone now. It's only fair right?"

Brad got up from the couch to step between him and Sam in what Freddie considered a vain attempt to protect his girlfriend as he had no qualms about putting his replacement on the ground to get to Sam.

Freddie felt a hand grip his upper arm that caused him pause. He turned his head ready to snap at the brunette for interfering, but he saw that Carly had such a look of pure outrage on her face that Freddie was momentarily caught off guard from it. She didn't look at him though as she kept her gaze on her blonde friend. She hissed out to Sam, "Get out and don't come back for a week."

"Carls—"

"I said _get out_!" she shouted as she let go of Freddie's arm and pointed to the door.

Brad started, "Carly—"

She turned her near murderous gaze to her tech-producer. "The same with you if you want to defend her!"

Sam shook her head without another word then turned towards the door.

Brad stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds until he realized that his girlfriend was already out the door. He glanced between the door and Carly a few times before finally turning and attempting to catch up with his girlfriend.

Freddie stood silent as he watched Carly take several deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself as he could see that her cheeks had flushed from her outburst. She looked to him and attempted to speak to him in a calm voice, "I'm going to buy you a new phone. Sam will just pay me back later."

Freddie smirked and shook his head. "Sam is not going to pay you back."

"Sam will pay me back someway. Just let me take you to the Pear Store and you can pick out any phone you want," she responded trying to overcome her apparent anger, but some still filtering through her voice. "I'll be right back." She didn't wait for his response as she head to Spencer's room where he guessed she was going to borrow some money or credit card.

Freddie shook his head picked up the intact frame and brushed away some the broken pieces off the back of the phone. He found what he was looking for and pulled out the SIM card. He discarded the phone back on the table then pulled out his wallet and carefully thumbed the small card in one of the flaps. He went back over to the kitchen and quickly put on his jacket.

Carly appeared out from the short hallway with a bit of impatience in her step. "Okay, I'm ready."

Gibby asked in a confused tone, "What am I suppose to do?"

The brunette walked over to Freddie and softly grabbed his left wrist and started pulling him towards the freight elevator. "See if Spencer can help you."

Gibby blinked as he watched the pair enter the elevator.

* * *

><p>Brad caught up with Sam down the hallway and shouted, "Sam! What was that?"<p>

The dirty blonde stopped in her tracks and huffed out a breath. She turned to look at her taller boyfriend and replied, "Ah, me breaking his phone."

He blinked and asked with genuine surprise, "Why?"

She let out a soft laugh, "Because I could."

Brad blew out a breath and shook his head. "And that was worth her throwing you out for a week? You know she's really going to do it."

"Maybe not if it was to just get under his skin—"

"You didn't irritate him—"

Her laugh interrupted him and she continued, "I didn't have to; it was worth it for another reason."

Brad raised an eyebrow signaling his wait for her answer.

She took a step forward and invaded her boyfriend's personal space with resting her hands on his chest. She whispered to him, "Carly may have thrown me out for a week, but who is she going to spend time with alone for the next few hours?"

Brad blinked as the pieces fell right into place in his mind.

Sam chuckled as she gave her boyfriend a wicked look. She smirked as she whispered, "As independent and 'free' he thinks he is, I still have him wrapped around mama's little finger. He is still so easy to play."

Brad wore an even expression.

Sam lifted her heels off the floor and captured Brad's lip in a quick kiss. She smirked as she motioned her head down the hallway and slipped a hand down his chest to slip into his right hand. "Come on, I need to you give me a ride." She pulled him along without waiting for an answer.

In Route to Pear Store

Freddie glanced out the window of the SUV as Carly was behind the wheel. "It's interesting riding again," he casually commented as he gazed at the scenery that a part of him missed over the last several months.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, Jade would usually drive her mom's car to school or anywhere else other than when I had to use one of the cars to get to work. I usually drive us around now."

"Any particular reason for the switch in who drives?"

Freddie smiled proudly as he answered, "I got a sixty-nine Charger just before my last visit. It's kind of beat up, _cosmetically speaking_, but she is a smooth ride. I learned how to drive a stick shift. I need to get her fixed up. She looks odd with the door a different color than the rest of the car."

"You're describing your car as a female,"

Freddie laughed as he turned his gaze to Carly. "Cars are female."

Carly let out a soft giggle, "Does your mother approve of you having another female in your life? Especially one like that?"

He blew out a breath then answered, "I really don't talk to her about it and… I really don't care whether she approves. She doesn't get the say she use to in my life anymore… especially after finding the chip in my head." He rolled his eyes and muttered in disgust, "Chipping me like a dog… at least I know Spanish from it."

He turned his attention to the front of the vehicle and cautiously asked, "Are you really banning Sam from the apartment for a week?"

The brunette answered without hesitation, "Yes."

Freddie remained silent as he thought over what that meant or more honestly the truthfulness of her statement.

"Does that surprise you?"

The Hollywood Arts student raised an eyebrow and answered sincerely, "Honestly, yeah."

She nodded along, apparently accepting of his doubts. "A lot of things changed after you left… I got a new perspective on my life… life in general. I started seeing things in a different light. Staying with the Dorfmans gave me a little bit of my mother's perspective on life and I realized that there were plenty of things that I had done that I don't believe my mother would be very proud of me for doing… for letting happen."

Freddie nodded along.

The rest of the ride was silent.

Pear Store  
>2656 NE University Village<br>Seattle, WA

Carly put on a bright smile as she entered the brightly lit store with Freddie holding the door for her. The pair entered and Freddie immediately glanced around the store he hadn't set foot in a while and couldn't help mentally comparing the layout of the store with his own store in L.A. He thought it was too clutter for people to move about freely to browse as they walked further in the store. _Poor managerial skills_, he instantly thought his store manger would complain about whoever was the manager of this store. He mentally patted himself on the back with the confirmation of feeling someone brushed against his back and left side as the store was surprisingly busy and people had to brush against one another to simply get through the displays stands and stations until the more open area in front of the store's Brilliance Bar.

The pair started their way over to the PearPhone section, but instead of focusing on the phones, Freddie raised an eyebrow at seeing Sam whisper over to a tall, dark haired woman that he recognized might be the manager of the store.

As Carly was curiously looking down at the phones, Freddie gently nudged her shoulder and motioned towards Sam with his head. "What's Sam doing here?"

Carly's brow furled as she caught sight of Sam. She whispered apparently just as surprised as Freddie, "I don't know… I'm going to go find out."

He gave a brief nod as he put on a weary expression. "Okay, I'm just going to grab a blue GX and meet you at the counter."

"Right, see ya in a second," she answered then headed off though the crowd to catch up with Sam as the blonde walked away from the dark haired woman.

The Hollywood Arts student turned to the display of several models, sub-models and color of PearPhones to visually scan through them to find an identical phone. If he was at his own store he would have found his particular phone in an instant, but this store had arranged their phone selection in a different manner, so it was taking him a few moments on how they had arranged their display.

A feminine voice called out behind him, "Excuse me?"

The Angeleno immigrant turned away from the phone display to see a taller, muscular gentleman with his arms crossed over his chest. The dark haired woman that Sam was talking to was standing slightly in front of him.

Freddie cracked a smile and raised an eyebrow as he asked, "Is there a problem?"

The manager looked at him with a hint of disdain on her face. "Would you please empty your pockets?

Freddie slightly frowned and bowed his head slightly, "No, I will not empty my pockets. What's this about?"

Natalie slightly frowned as she calmly spoke to the muscular employee, "Kevin, check his pockets."

Freddie raised his hands and started, "Whoa, whoa, who—"

Kevin grabbed him by the shoulders and twisted him into a Guillotine chokehold in a blink of an eye. He tried pawing at Freddie's rear to try to reach into his left jacket pocket.

Freddie could hear Carly shouting for the Pear Store employee to let him go, but he was far too concerned about being put in a chokehold. He shifted his weight from foot to foot and twisted his head to prevent Kevin from getting his arm to put pressure directly on the front of his neck while clawing with his left hand around the back of the Pear Store employee's waist to desperately grab purchase on his belt or waist and his other hand pawed at his right pocket to feel the outline of his keys in his pocket. A finger hooked into one of the rings of his keys and he was able to pull the keys out of his pocket and palm them. He clenched his keys in his hand with a few sliding between his fingers then jabbed as hard as he could at Kevin's groin.

The muscular man screamed excruciating pain as the keys between Freddie's fingers stabbed him right in the genitals.

The shouts from the man was an obvious signal that he had hit his mark, so Freddie started punching at where he hoped was the same spot as fast as he as his arm would move. Kevin screamed again as the shots found their marks and causing him enough pain to loosen his grip on Freddie.

The former Seattleite pushed him off and sucked in a desperate breath as he stumbled backwards.

Kevin was holding on to his groin with one hand checking to see how intact he remained as he stumbled backwards. Some blood was already seeping through the front of his paints. He may have not punctured the pants, but the abrasion through the pants was apparently enough to break skin.

Both combatants gained their footing at the same time. Kevin attempted to reach for Freddie with his other hand while still holding on to his groin.

Freddie quickly took another couple of quick breaths as he reeled his right arm back then threw a punch as hard as he could at Kevin's face with the keys still pointing out between his fingers once he got into range. His fist collided with the employee's left cheek and blood went flying as the keys sliced his cheek from the impact of his fist. His head jerked backwards and stumbled back several feet. He attempted to right himself only to see Freddie charge at him with his left fist coming at him and clock him in the jaw then followed up by another punch to the face with his keys hand.

The final impact sent more blood flying and him spinning around face first into the floor. Kevin started coughing and spitting up blood on the floor as his other hand held on to his groin. He pretty much given up since it was most likely he had lost a ball or maybe both over something that wasn't worth the trouble in the first place and didn't want to find out what more Freddie could do to him.

Freddie rubbed his own throat as he took several more deep breaths.

Carly was by his side in an instant and rested a hand on his arm. "Oh my God Freddie, are you alright?"

He blew out a breath and choked out, "Yeah, I'm okay. I've been through worst." He looked up and was taken aback for a moment at seeing genuine concern in her eyes for him. He covered his shock with a swallow and several more deep breaths. He stood up straight and looked down a Kevin as he wallowed in pain.

Freddie snorted out loud enough for everyone to hear, "As my girlfriend would say, 'It's not as much fun when someone fights back, is it?'"

He reached into his left jacket pocket and felt a pear shaped object. He pulled out the red GX PearPhone and glance at it. He snorted out with disgust, "A blasted non-operational display phone." He blew out a breath and tossed it on top of Kevin.

He turned his focus to Sam standing several feet away and wearing an expression that he really had never seen on her face: outright fear. He took a step forward toward the dirty blonde. He narrowed his gaze on his former frenemy and whispered in a taunting manner, "I'm betting you're the one that bumped into me and slipped the phone in my pocket. Frame me for shoplifting? Really Sam? Is that the best you got?" His taunting tone was replaced with a darker tone and a deep frown, "You too afraid to pick up where Jade interrupted us?"

Sam swallowed and even she took a step back from the former iCarly tech-producer at seeing how tightly he was holding the blood soaked keys.

He snorted out in disgust then looked to Natalie. The sight of her flared up more of his indignation. She had outright fear in her eyes from the deathly glare Freddie was giving her and subconsciously took a step backwards. The other employees did the same along with a few costumers.

Freddie chuckled, but it wasn't a friendly one and Carly felt an ominous sense about the laugh. "Do you have any one else to throw at me to try to illegally search me? I'm just here to buy a phone after old she-demon over there just broke mine about half an hour ago, but I want it on the house. You know, just to incentives me not to call my lawyer and Bob, you know the Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering of the company and that I'm on first name basis with? I'm sure he can call up the right person to have you fired."

The dark haired manager swallowed nervously then chocked out, "Trey, get him any phone he wants."

He kept his eyes on Freddie as he answered, "Yes ma'am."

Carly remained silent at seeing her former Tech-Producer stand triumphantly at Seattle's failed attempt to tear him down. She then looked to Sam and gave her friend a harsh glare. Sam found the decency to bow her head slightly and avoid Carly's damning gaze.

About twenty minutes later the pair exited the store with a new phone in Freddie's hand while the paramedics walked past them.

Freddie thought for a moment that Officer Carl was going to attempt to arrest him, but Carly with a surprisingly firm voice told the antagonistic cop they had several run ins with before while pointing to Kevin still on the floor then to Natalie, "He assaulted Freddie, Freddie fought back, you try to arrest Freddie and I will tell my father… and I know my father talked to you when he was on leave a few months ago about you ignoring a break in to our home. So arrest him and while you're at it, her too." Freddie tried to hide his shock as Carl looked visibly frightened at Carly dropping her father into the conversation then actually following her suggestion.

He was also surprised at Carly telling Sam she was banned from the apartment for a month.

As they made there way back to the Shays' SUV, Freddie pressed a button on his new PearPhone to record a message: 'Note to self, add firing Natalie and Kevin to the conditions for negotiating terms with Pear.' He then pressed another button to test his ring tone from his SIM card. Jade's voice started singing through the speaker, _'There is no upper hand, I'm giving you mine, it doesn't have to end up wasting you time, there are things that I could say, but here in my own way I want to let you know that it's all okay…'_

Carlotta "Carly" Shay's Room  
>Shay Apartment<br>Seattle, WA  
>Saturday, November 5, 2011<p>

Freddie and Carly had arrived back at the apartment about twenty minutes ago and Carly was pacing back and forth behind her couch with her arms crossed under her chest. Freddie was sitting in her desk chair and silently watching the brunette fume. He was internally debating whether she was genuine upset or her acting skills had gotten better since he left.

The pale web-hostess finally snarled out, "I can't believe Sam would do that!"

He raised a curious eyebrow as he asked, "Really?"

She stopped in her tracks and turned to face her former tech-producer. "Before you left, yes, now—no!"

Both corners of his mouth turned downward in surprise from that statement. "Why?"

Carly palmed her forehead with both of her palms and closed her eyes. She took several calming breaths then dropped her hands and looked to him with a tired expression. "She's gotten better… not completely turning over a new leaf, but she's getting better. She's not as violent anymore. She doesn't bother peo—"

"That's because Jade proved she wasn't invincible—"

"Only partially," she interrupted with a weary tone.

Freddie took a soft breath and slightly shook his head. "So your dad thinks she's really salvageable?"

Carly looked away for a moment. "Yeah… I don't know all the details since I was at the Dorfmans at the time, but he… put his foot down when it came to Sam. He expects a certain level of behavior if she's to remain allowed to be in the apartment and a part of my life. If she… misbehaves, she has to be disciplined. She doesn't get anymore 'free passes' I'm told and he's holding Spencer to it since he's the adult."

"That's why you banned her from the apartment for _a month_?"

"She could have gotten you arrested and—"

Freddie smirked as he interrupted, "Been forced to stay? Maybe spent the night and Sunday in jail before a Monday hearing then required to stay longer…" He eyed Carly with a guarded expression. "It might make some people happy."

Carly took a step forward to close the gap to the sitting immigrant Angeleno. "I didn't tell her to do that! I didn't tell her to break you phone or do that at the Pear Store!"

A corner of Freddie's mouth lifted as he replied with a suspicious tone, "Sam may be book dumb, but she's very smart in other areas. You wouldn't have to tell her anything specific. She could figure something out all on her own."

She huffed out a breath and demanded, "If you are going to accuse me then accuse me! Don't insinuate."

"I have circumstances that could suggest shining a bad light on you… but that doesn't mean you did anything wrong."

Carly blinked as she was unsure if she was exonerating her or not.

He looked down for a moment then back up to meet her brown eyes. "The last time I visited, Beck talked to Jade about… something which could lead one to believe that he was undermining my relationship with Jad—"

"He wouldn't do that!" Carly snapped out quickly without thinking.

Freddie blinked and slightly frowned from her outburst. "How do you know that?"

The brunette closed her mouth quickly and her eyes opened wide. She took a moment to gather her thoughts then responded, "Because… when we still wanted you to give Sam a chance he flatly turned us down when we asked him to help us change your mind. He seems to be a pretty standup guy."

"Oh?" he answered as he recalled Jade telling him that Beck had turned the girls down from the conversation that Saturday where she had told him that she and Freddie were together. He nodded and continued, "He is, I don't agree with some of his past choices, but… he's a good guy. Anyway, it could look like he was taking advantage of the fact that I wasn't there or that he was trying to help us… with something. Sometimes the appearance doesn't match what's really happening and sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and there is no deeper meaning."

"Meaning in my case?"

He looked directly into Carly's eyes with a determined stare. He could sense that she wanted to break the eye contact, but she held firm her stare. He let out a tired breath, "Sam just wanted to screw with me because she's Sam and that you, Spencer and the Colonel still have a lot a work ahead of you if you want to save her."

Carly blew out a relieved breath and let her shoulders slump. "Thank you."

He laughed, "Don't thank me; you're the one that decided to raise a kid at seventeen."

She snorted out a laugh and joined him in the tension relieving laugh.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport  
>Saturday, November 5, 2011<p>

The afternoon was winding down as Freddie, Carly and Spencer were at the departure terminal waiting for the tech-producer's flight back to L.A. Sam, Brad and Gibby were with them, but stood off to the side as they realized that they were not exactly welcomed by Freddie (or Carly) during his departure. Mrs. Benson had opted to stay at home because it troubled her too much to watch him get on the plane due to seeing her son actually leave and an exaggerated sense of concern about the safety of flying.

Freddie smiled and gave a respectful nod to the lanky artist. "Spencer."

He gave him a goofy grin. "Freddie."

Nothing more was apparently needed to be said between the pair, so Freddie looked to the other pale brunette that was inexorably tangled in his life. "Well…"

Carly nodded as she wore an apprehensive expression. "Yeah," she answered with a bashful grin.

He gave her a genuine laugh as he replied, "That kind of sums it up… fun night and day?"

She looked at him for a few more moments then leaned forward and pulled him into a hug.

Freddie smiled as he patted her on the back. He whispered, "I'll give you a call sometime this week."

She dipped her head slightly downward onto his shoulder as she answered, "Okay. You take care."

"I will. You take care of yourself Carly Shay."

They pulled apart and held a gaze on one another for a few seconds then he turned to start down the path for boarding, but he did glance over his shoulder and gave her a nod of his head.

She raised a hand and softly waved at him until he disappeared around the corner.

Sam cautiously walked up beside the brunette and commented, "He's leaving again."

"But he came back," Carly whispered with a smile as she stared at the spot Freddie was just standing. "He'll come back again," she repeated self-assured in her opinion.

The slightly shorter teenager nodded. "I'm still banned for _a month_?"

Carly remained silent as she turned and walked past her friend to start her way out of the airport. Spencer was caught off by her sudden turn that he had to rush to catch up with Carly.

The other iCarly host blew out a breath through her nose. "Ah, it was worth it."

Los Angeles International Airport  
>1 World Way<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Saturday, November 5, 2011<p>

The sun was just setting as Freddie was smiling ear to ear while exiting the airport and seeing Jade wearing a half smirk as she leaned against the door of the Charger in the parking lot. She was a sight to turn heads with her blue jeans, white athletic tank top under one of his open flannel blue pattern shirt (it was too big to be one of her own, but not _the_ blue pattern shirt either) and raven hair falling on her shoulders. She pushed off the car as he reached her. He dropped the suitcase down and let his rolling case spring upright as she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck. He responded by wrapping his arms around the small of her back. He surprised her by picking her off of her feet and twirling them around as his lips contacted hers.

He sat her down on her feet and smiled at his dark haired girlfriend. He noticed that her smile seemed a little forced, but he brushed it aside, not giving it much thought. "Hey."

"Hey," she responded somewhat casually, but he could hear how forced she tried to make her voice sound.

He pulled away from her and picked up his suitcase and rolling silver case. She walked around him to the trunk and quickly pulled a set of keys from her pocket and opened the trunk for him. He quickly dropped the luggage in the trunk then the couple parted to walk around to their respective car doors with Jade opting to drive.

As she settled into the driver's seat, she asked, "So, did you have nice trip?"

Freddie shrugged a shoulder while pulling his seatbelt over his chest, "The flight back was fine."

As she started the Charger, there was a slight edge to her voice as she answered, "That's great."

She looked back and forth to make sure her path was clear then pulled out of the parking space then a few moments later pulling the vehicle into passing traffic. The raven haired girl remained silent as she drove for the next few minutes which caused Freddie to grow a bit concern.

He studied her for a few seconds and he could tell that she was getting nervous underneath his gaze with her shifting eyes on the road and tightening jaw. He decided to ask the most obvious question, "What's wrong?"

The Charger came to a screeching stop as she pulled them off to the side of the road and throwing them slightly forward before the seat belts stopped them and they fell back into their seats.

Freddie blinked in shock from the sudden stop of the vehicle while Jade blew out a breath as her hands tightened around the steering wheel. "I can't do it."

He looked at her patiently to explain what she meant and felt a strange since of déjà vu from a few months ago when he pulled over the car.

She snorted out a breath and shook her head. She propped her left elbow against the door and rested her temple against her closed fist. She wore a deep frowned as she spoke with a sharp tone, "I'm not ready to forgive or forget what Carly did to you no matter how apparently sorry she is. I'm not ready to forgive any of them for what they did. I don't care what mom says about how alike Carly and I are about changing. I don't care how much of a hypocrite that makes me. I'm not going to get all these warm fuzzy feelings about her and be all understanding of her pain that she brought on herself." She paused to take a breath then growled out and slammed her right hand on top of the steering wheel, "No one gave a damn about how I felt when I lost Beck. No one felt sorry for the mean girl that drove the nice guy into dumping her; they were all too busy hoping on a plane to some Godforsaken country with some two-bit dictator who's now rotting in Hell. I'm not sorry that I don't have any sympathy for her."

She took a slow breath as she continued to look out the windshield. Her peripheral vision caught sight of Freddie's right hand gently slid over and rest on her hand on the steering wheel. His larger hand was soft and gentle and enticed her to turn her head to meet his gaze. He had leaned over in his seat and his face was inches away from her and looking directly into her eyes.

He whispered softly, "I'm not asking you to. I'm not going to ask you to feel something you don't feel. I am not going to belittle your feelings or think they are irrational or petty or hypocritical for what you're feeling. Not because it means you care about me, but because they are your feelings."

She bowed her head and whispered with a hint of disgust in her voice, "Why do you have to be so damn understanding?"

He cracked a smile then kissed her forehead. His voice was barely audible as he replied, "Just one of those things you love about me."

She coughed as she was obviously to Freddie's eyes trying to suppress a laugh. "Charmer."

The brown eyed teenager grinned as he retorted, "That's not charm, that's the truth."

She looked up to meet his eyes and a smile formed on her face. "It is isn't it?"

He responded with a soft smile.

She let out a soft, genuine laugh then stated, "Thought so… so ready to go home?"

Freddie snorted out a laugh, "Absolutely."

He shifted back in his seat and Jade turned back in her seat with a wicked grin on her face as she shifted the stick back into gear then floored the accelerator of the classic muscle car, peeling away from the curb in a billow of smoke from burning rubber.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: The chapter did not go exactly how I planned, but not too off with viewing iPear Store. A little secret I'll tell you, the only thing that changed from the original plan was what happened at the Pear Store since Sam was going to break his phone either way as she actually did in the episode. Later, see you next week, I think since this was such a long chapter I might be another two weeks.<p> 


	25. Chapter 25

Author's Note: Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a nice week. My week was pretty good. I was able to get this one done early, so I thought I might as well get it up sooner. (Gives me the chance to finish up the next two chapters of iWant to Wake up.) I hope you enjoy this chapter. Don't be shy to review, I do answer the reviews.

Wow about Tori goes Platinum… anything I would say would be spoilers for some people, but wow with what happened with certain characters. I hope you as my dear readers won't think I'll be going OOC with characters if they don't match up what happened in that episode.

Oh, and please remember this is just a story and the views of characters are just views of the characters. It is just a story.

* * *

><p>Chapter 25<p>

Weight/Training Room  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>9:52 A.M., Sunday, November 6, 2011

André asked with a partially disbelieving tone as he was spotting the tech-producer going through his weight training routine with his legs on the diagonal sled leg press, "She tried to frame you for shoplifting a display phone?"

Freddie blew out a harsh breath as he pushed with his legs against the weights. He smirked has he felt the familiar tightening sensation in his left knee that would soon pass. The taco truck may have broken his leg, but with the physical rehab and continued workout regiment, his left leg was probably stronger than his right leg even at those rare times his knee would tighten up. He answered once his legs pushed the weights to the top, "Yep."

"Why?" the songsmith laughed still a bit surprised.

He raised an eyebrow as he bent his legs to slowly lower the weights. "Other than just wanting to jank with me? Probably isn't one unless it's because she wanted me to stay."

"Why would she want you to stay? She hates you or… loves you?" André shook his head as the whole thing still confused him about a girl liking Freddie and hating him at the same time.

Freddie sucked in another breath and started pushing again. "She's with Brad, the one we thought she liked during the lock-in and the one they got to replace me as iCarly's Tech-Producer, so I think she got over her infatuation with me. Why would she want me to stay? Maybe for Carly? She wants me to stay and I wouldn't put it passed Sam to try something to help Carly, but keeping her out of it."

André nodded along with the possible explanation then asked, "Unless she was in on it?"

Freddie held the weights for a few moments as he answered, "I'm taking it on a little faith that Carly didn't learn to lie that well since I've been gone and that she really is trying."

"Okay, I can see that… How did Jade react when you told her? About what Sam tried?"

The browned haired teenager sucked in a breath as he slowly bent his knees to lower the weights then pushed again against the weights. Once he pushed the weights to the top he answered, "She yelled for about half an hour about Sam. I was afraid she was going to have a heart attack or a stroke right in front of me."

The songsmith snorted out a breath and shook his head. "That bad?"

As the weights reached the bottom, he laughed darkly, "Her face turned as red as Cat's hair."

André's mouth dropped and eyes nearly bugged out. "Wow… that must not have been pleasant."

The Seattle native pushed the weights to the top again then answered, "No… you don't want to see your girlfriend get that upset. It upsets you seeing her that upset."

"I'll take your word for it."

He followed up with a lighthearted tone, "Just think about how you feel when Tori gets upset; it's like that."

The songsmith's brow furled, but nodded along to avoid going off on a tangent about Tori. "Jade really hates Sam, doesn't she?"

Freddie blew out a tired breath, but not from the workout. "Yeah, she really does hate her. Whatever resentment she's ever held against Tori pales in comparison."

The L.A. native asked with a dark laugh, "Think those two will ever go at it again? You know mono-a-mono?"

Freddie pushed up one more time then instructed, "Lock it?"

André responded without a second thought and started locking the end of the machine before even answering, "Yeah."

He swung his legs out then stood up from the machine. He took one side and André the other as they unspoken agreed to take the weights off each side. As Freddie was setting one down, he put on a deep frown and responded, "There's not going to ever be a rematch between them."

As André was pulling off another weight he answered, "You might not have much a say in it."

Freddie pulled off his last weight and answered with a dark tone, "If I hit Sam in the head first with a baseball bat that will at least slow her down."

André sat his last weight in the proper place then asked, "Freddie? Don't you think that might be a little extreme, even after all the things…" He trailed off when he saw the determined look in his friend's eyes.

Freddie rested his forearm against the machine as he answered in a firm tone, "Sam has super-strength."

The songwriter asked with a little disbelief even if he knew for months Freddie was right, "Freddie?"

He laughed out darkly, "She can carry me over her shoulder without a problem. She can arm-wrestle me down without _any_ effort. She can knock out grown men with one punch. The only time I haven't seen her use it when she really should have used it was when she was trying to pull Carly up from scaffold when they were dangling off the side of Bushwell Plaza during their little spat."

André took a deep breath then stated, "Jade seemed to do just fine on her own last time. Broke a couple of Sam's ribs remember?"

Freddie walked around the machine and started towards the bench where his and André's bags were resting. He had a seat by his bag and replied, "That's because she caught her off guard from behind and smacked her head on table before jumping on her and kicking her with steel toed boots. I'm afraid if they have another straight up fight that she could really hurt Jade, maybe even kill her. So if Sam ever tries anything, I'm going to put her down her anyway I can even if I have to run her over with my car _then_ back up over her. I will not let her hurt Jade, I swear to you on that."

André gave a cautious nod as he took a seat by his friend and grabbed his sports bottle to have a sip of water. "So how was the rest of your trip?"

He blew out another breath as he was reaching for his own water from his bag then answered, "Talked with Gibby… he got mad that I didn't want to be his friend anymore. I'm finally holding him responsible for his whole cheating on Tasha and moving in on Patrice after his fit about thinking Tasha cheated on him with me."

André took a quick sip from his bottle then started, "The European underwear model that sometimes forgets to wear the—"

"_Yes_ that's the one." Freddie raised a corner of his mouth as he looked to André. "I did tell him that he didn't measure up with the rest of my friends."

André snorted out a breath and grinned at the tech-producer. "If you don't mind me asking, why give Carly another chance and not Gibby?"

Freddie wiped his brow with a towel he pulled from his bag then took another sip from his water. He brought the bottle away from his lips then blew out a breath through his nose and slightly shook his head. "I'm not giving Carly another chance. I'm just trying to forgive her the same as Gibby… just that I have a lot more to forgive from her. There's no guarantee that we can ever be friends again."

"That's my point: you've ruled out Gibby completely, but you're leaving the door open for Carly."

Freddie leaned forward and rested his forearms on his knees as he held his bottle between his knees with a guarded expression on his face, but André knew from the look in his eyes that he was deep in thought. He remained silent for a few moments then took a sip from his water.

André nodded with the lack of an answer then lightly elbowed his forearm. "Your turn to spot me on the bench press. I can't let you make me look all soft in comparison."

The Seattle native rolled his eyes then closed the mouthpiece down of the bottle before following his friend to one of the bench presses.

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Monday, November 7, 2011

Jade put away a book into her locker as Freddie rested his right forearm the support beam that cornered off the end of the lockers and the corner for the school entrance. She was making a quick switch out of books between just getting out of Sikowitz's class and heading to meet everyone at lunch at the Asphalt Café.

As the dark haired teenager was shutting her locker, a teasing voice called out from behind Freddie, "Wow, didn't you make a big surprise on iCarly?"

Freddie turned to see Dusty and Ava had approached from down the hall to come up behind the couple. He gave the Southern teenager a surprised expression. "You were watching?"

The pair stopped just in front of the couple and Dusty smirked as he pointed to himself. "I'm a fan remember? I still watch. I can't miss my Cam moments. I was wondering why you took off Friday."

Jade snorted out with a roll of her eyes. "You don't know how right you are about that."

TheSlap webmaster eyed her playfully and laughed out, "Oh don't ship-tease me West."

The shorter dark brunette (Ava had dyed her hair a darker shade of brown sometime before the 'Parade Parade') shook her head then asked with a bit of mischievousness in her voice, "How did my sister treat you?"

Freddie put on a soft smile as he answered Sinjin's girlfriend with a slightly relieved tone, "Didn't run into her. If I swung by Ridgeway for a visit then I couldn't have surprised Carly."

"True," she conceded with a smile.

Jade rolled her eyes and groaned out almost as a retching sound, "Twins."

Ava gave a small smile as she retorted, "I'm me and she's her and we are not the same contrary to what you think."

"Are you sure about that?" Jade challenged with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

Ava's smile grow bigger as she confidently answered, "Yes, I'm sure."

Dusty slightly shook his head then brought the conversation back around with a casually question, "So, surprise visit to iCarly?"

Freddie shook his head as he let out a chuckle. "I had to surprise Carly. It was the first time the Colonel was going to be home for his birthday in a while then something came up. I knew it would really hit her from him having to miss out again so… I had to do something to try to make it better."

Dusty spared a quick glance to see how Jade was reacting to Freddie's statement and saw she wore a guarded expression then commented, "Nice thing you did there… I guess her dad has to miss a lot of things, birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. You have to sacrifice a lot for what he does."

Freddie took Jade's hand and began to lead the quartet on their way to the exit leading to the Asphalt Café as he answered, "Yeah, he's gone most of the time. Special Forces and all that."

Dusty laughed, "Special Forces you say? Last minute cancellation of seeing his daughter and the Chancellor of Yerba supposedly killed last week by 'rebels' just before the broadcast? Little coincidental there?"

"I'm not asking," Freddie laughed in response.

"Good riddance and good for Uncle Steven if he did it himself," Jade commented with disgust with the Chancellor, but a soft sense of pride underlining her voice.

Ava asked curiously, "Uncle?"

Freddie began with a slightly awkward tone and expression on his face, "Long story—"

Jade spoke up in an instant, "My mom and Carly's dad have know each since they were children."

Freddie commented with an awkward smile and embarrassing tone, "Okay, not so long story."

The dark brunette commented with a soft laugh, "Isn't that a coincidence."

"Life is full of them," Freddie echoed the response he had given Lane as they reached the door and pushed it open for them to exit.

Dusty spoke up as he held the door for Ava to exit before him and for he to pull up the rear, "Experience has taught me there isn't any such thing as coincidences like that… like Ava going to this school and her sister going to your old one."

Freddie decided to remain silent as he really didn't have a comeback or see a reason to argue the point. He wasn't in the philosophical mood before lunch.

As the quartet got in line for the Grub Truck, Ava commented innocently, "We heard about what happened at the Pear Store in Seattle."

Freddie snapped his head around to look at the shorter girl with a shocked expression. "What?" He glanced to Jade and they exchanged slightly shocked expressions on who could have told them.

The mystery was quickly solved as Dusty answered, "Dude, it's not like you could keep it secret. You beat the crap out of one of the employees… you nearly took his dick off—" He glanced between Jade and Ava with an embarrassing smile. "Sorry ladies for using the vernacular in your presence."

Jade suppressed a chuckle with a slight bow of her head at seeing that he could look genuinely embarrassed for using such language in front of ladies.

Ava spoke up, "What he's trying to say is: it made the news as in the television news and not just the internet."

Freddie chuckled with a hint of disgust, "Oh, that's just nice… well he started it."

The Southern teenager laughed, "It's not like either one of us is going to be judging you. If he wanted to start a fight, just make sure you finish it."

"Thanks."

Ava asked curiously, "Why were you there in the first place?"

The Seattle native shrugged a shoulder, "Well, my phon—"

Jade looked over her shoulder to look at the pair and interrupted with an abrupt tone, "Sam broke his phone and Carly was buying him a new one."

Freddie glanced at Jade with a sharp look more out of shock than anger. The raven haired girl ignored his stare.

The leaner male raised an eyebrow and asked hesitantly, "Ah… why?"

"She's just that much of a bitch and likes breaking his stuff," Jade answered as if it was as obvious as commenting that the sky was blue.

Dusty glanced to Ava to see a look of surprise that he guessed he was wearing on his own face then looked back to Freddie and cautiously commented, "I thought she broke props to be funny on the show, not your actually stuff."

Jade snarked out, "Well the bitch didn't, she'd steal his stuff to break it."

"Jade," Freddie whispered in a hushed tone.

She turned her head sharply to meet her boyfriend's brown eyes and asked with a short tone, "What?"

Dusty answered for Freddie with a calm voice hoping to diffuse the situation, "West, you are obviously pissed with Sam for very good reason, but he's obviously not comfortable going into details with us… so I guess you could drop it since it's really none of our business why."

The couple turned to look at each other. Jade broke eye contact first then whispered out in almost a mumble, "Sorry."

"It's okay," he whispered then gave her a quick kiss to her right cheek.

They quartet waited a few more moments to get their food then Jade and Freddie led the other two towards their usual table with Ava departing with a smile to find Sinjin. Dusty decided to sit with them until the rest of the HA gang arrived and his own friends at another table.

Dusty sat across from the pair in Beck's usual seat and asked, "So, what kind of phone did you get?"

Freddie reached into his pocket and produced his phone to hand to Dusty.

Dusty took the blue pear shape phone and examined it for an unnecessary second since the phone could only be one model. He looked up and gave Freddie a questioning look as he asked, "You bought another piece of crap GX?"

"Piece of crap?" Freddie nearly shouted in surprise.

He handed the phone back to Freddie and continued, "The GXs suck. You could sneeze on the blasted things and they'll break. The things are so flimsy are you sure Sam did it on purpose?"

"Ohhhh, yes quite sure," she answered looking directly into Dusty eyes challenging him to disagree with her.

He leaned forward and retorted with an edge to his own voice, "Hey, don't turn your evil eye on me West. Remember? You don't intimidate me."

The pale actress frowned and let out a soft growl in frustration then looked down and rested her forehead against the side of her hand.

Dusty rolled his eyes then reached into his black jacket pocket and pulled out a black rectangular PearPhone with a matching black heavy-duty case. "Now this is a phone."

Freddie accepted the phone and glanced over it quickly. "An old G5?"

He answered proudly with a big grin, "Yep, nearly identical functions to GX, since the major upgrade was simply the inferior construction and it looked pretty, they're nearly indestructible and that's without a protective case, plus it doesn't look like you're carrying a silly piece of fruit. How do you fit those in your pockets being all oddly round like that?"

The tech-producer nodded his head as he was force to agree on one part from remembering something a few years ago, "My old principal was real excited when he first got one a few years ago. I threw it right on the floor and he laughed. He picked it up to slam it against a locker to show how tough it was, so you are right about that."

Dusty shifted his eyes back and forth for a moment then asked with a raised eyebrow, "Why did you through your principal's phone on the floor?"

He shrugged a shoulder and smiled as he answered, "I was trying to get detention so I could film our fiftieth webshow extravaganza."

Dusty started chuckling, "I remember that; it was funny. That Howard guy seems like a real jackass though."

The more muscular teen snorted out a breath, "Oh, you don't know the half of it…"

He glanced past Freddie and Jade to see the rest of the HA gang start approaching. He looked back to the couple and finished, "Yeah, well, you got the last laugh and the greatest revenge."

"Revenge?"

"Yeah," he started as he stood up, "The greatest revenge is living well."

Freddie blinked and looked to him with a slightly stunned expression.

He grinned warmly as he parted, "See you two lovebirds later."

"Later," Freddie bid farewell to the web-master while Jade forced a smile, but her eyes told him that her frustration wasn't directed at him and she was also bidding him a pleasant farewell.

As he passed Cat, the redhead smiled brightly at him. "Hey Soapy."

The taller teenager chuckled and replied with a warm tone, "Hi Sweetheart." He gave her a brief kiss on the forehead then headed off to his own table.

The childlike teen giggled and brought a hand to cover her mouth while Robbie put on a frown and narrowed his eyes on the passing L.A. immigrant. Rex just laughed at his handler's foul mood, "Country boy makes it look easy." Robbie stared at the puppet and Rex stared back as usual since he obviously didn't have any facial muscles to move.

The curly haired teenager rolled his eyes then took his usual seat as Cat had already settled in her own seat. A few moments later Tori and André took seats beside one another. A moment or so later after them, Trina walked around and had a seat across from Freddie and Jade. He immediately noticed that that older Vega sister appeared to be in a sour mood.

They all glanced at him expectantly as if one of them was hoping he'd be the first one to speak. André looked casual since he already knew the story, but Tori looked a little apprehensive. He obliged them by starting, "I'm just going to go ahead and say this: except for what Sam pulled, which I'm sure you already know, the trip was great. Carly and I are getting on better terms and we are working on the whole forgiveness thing."

Tori glanced to Jade to see her reaction, but didn't see any sign of acknowledging Freddie's statement, so she smiled as she commented, "That's great to hear."

"Thanks."

The group started on their respective lunches, but Freddie couldn't help but notice how down Trina looked as opposed to her normal cheerful self. He spoke up to Trina while giving her a concerned expression, "What's wrong Trina?"

Trina blew out a breath and spared a glance to André and Robbie before looking to Freddie to answer, "You were right."

Freddie raised an eyebrow. "I was right? About what?"

Trina rolled her eyes and nodded her head to the side. "About Beck. Wednesday night Beck… came over to have dinner with me… or so I thought." She motioned her head to André then continued, "André showed up then Beck and they started fighting about which one should date me then Robbie showed up wanting to be with me too. They got into what I thought was a real fight, but really they were just acting to show me what it was like to see boys really fight over me. When I went to get dad to break them up, they all acted like they were performing a puppet show and that I was nuts. Beck wanted to teach me a lesson."

The former Seattleite frowned. He repeated to make sure he had heard the older Vega sister correctly, "Beck led you on then pretended to get in a fight with André and Robbie to 'teach you a lesson'?"

She groaned out as she gave an evil eye towards Robbie, "Learn my lesson about telling lies."

Freddie closed his eyes and shook his head in disgust. He glanced to André then to Robbie and made sure he looked in each of their eyes for part of his comment, "Both of you should be ashamed of yourselves."

The two boys blinked as Freddie got up from his seat, leaving his food and book bag without a word. Trina looked just as surprised seeing him come to her defense despite witnessing him doing it before in the float before the parade. As he turned to walk away, Jade called out without hiding a bit of her concern on her face or in her voice, "Where are you going?"

"To find Beck," he called out as he headed to the entrance he had exited from a few minutes ago.

* * *

><p>Beck turned the corner across for the drink machines and janitor's closet as he made his way down the hall to catch up with the rest for lunch. His stride had taken him in front of the main stairwell when Freddie met him halfway. He smiled to Freddie and greeted him, "Hey."<p>

Freddie frowned at him and with an even tone stated, "Beck, we need to talk… _now_."

A number of students turned their attention from hearing the tone in Freddie's voice.

"Hey, we can talk after lunch; I'm starving," he laughed off casually as he attempted to walk around Freddie.

Freddie sidestepped and got in Beck's way. He looked at him with an even expression. "No, we need to talk right now."

The taller teenager slightly frowned and looked to Freddie with some concern. "What?"

Freddie answered with an edge to his voice, "About what happened Wednesday night at Trina's house."

Beck slightly bowed his head and frowned as he felt a little annoyed that Freddie was getting involved with his business, especially when apparently he was already taking Trina's side. Beck retorted with an even expression, "I don't think we have anything to discuss on that."

Freddie tilted the side of his head and whispered, "Yes we do. You want to have this conversation in front of everyone or in private? We are having it one way or the other, 'cause I'm not letting you put it off."

Beck glanced around to see that a number of students were looking at them and quite interesting about what could happen in the next few moments between the boys that shared one thing in common. He looked to Freddie and saw that he wasn't bothered if people were looking at them.

The taller teenager blew out a breath and answered, "Fine, let's talk." He turned and headed back down the hallway with Freddie right behind him.

A few moments later they were back in Sikowitz's empty classroom they had all left a few minutes ago. Freddie shut the door behind them and Beck immediately turned, "Okay, you wanted to talk."

Freddie cracked a smile, but it wasn't a friendly one, but more of a sarcastic one. "Yeah, what you did was wrong."

Beck snapped back defensively with a furled brow, "She went around telling people I asked her out."

Freddie responded a little bit flabbergasted, "I know, but it's still wrong."

The leaner teenager raised a surprised eyebrow as he asked in a disbelieving tone, "You're agreeing with her?"

"No I'm not and I told her that I didn't before you pulled your stunt. I did something you should have done from the start: talk to her instead of playing some stupid prank on her. What exactly where you hoping to accomplish?"

Beck put on a look of annoyance as he answered, "I asked her why and she gave me that stupid reason to get guys to fight over to ask her out. She was a manic about it and there really isn't anything to discuss with her thinking such a thing, so the 'prank' was to get her to realize that she shouldn't be telling lies about me."

The brown eyed teenager blinked at the response then came back with annoyance and disbelief in his voice, "So you really didn't try to have a conversation about it with her? You thought attempting to lead her on then make her feel like she was crazy was a better solution?" Freddie shook his head and blew out a breath in disgust. He looked up to stare Beck straight in the eyes then continued, "You know I thought this behavior of yours was just with Jade and you just screwed up on how to be a good boyfriend, now it looks like it's just a character flaw that you have of talking down to girls as if they are children, like you have some right to 'discipline' them if they are doing something you don't agree with. You're not their father."

Beck took a step forward and pointed at Freddie's chest. He nearly shouted, "Hey, I didn't ask for your help or opinion on the matter, so it really doesn't concern you."

Freddie took a step forward to meet his challenging gaze. "When you just played my friend, yes it does concern me. It is wrong what you did and you should know better. I know if you pulled that stunt with Cat, talking down to her or really treating her as a child—"

"She is a child and you know it," he snapped back as if annoyed that he was pointing out the obvious.

He reluctantly nodded along with the taller teenager. "I'm willing to agree with you that she can be very childlike at times, but… if you ever treat her like one like you just did with Trina or I've seen and heard how you were with Jade, Dusty is going to go looking for you and he's _not_ going to try to be as nice about it as I'm trying to be."

Beck slightly frowned with confusion. "Dusty? One of Cat's exes?"

"Yeah, one that obviously still cares about her and quite willing to hurt you."

The actor shook his head and squinted his eyes for a moment. "He doesn't know me."

Freddie lifted a corner of his mouth and laughed off, "He's said the same thing. That's why he doesn't have an opinion one way or another about liking you, but he doesn't respect you from what he's seen how you treated Jade on your old Slap videos." He lost the lighthearted tone as he finished, "I think it insults his Southern sense of morality, so you should watch your step or you'll have to deal with him and he doesn't strike me as having my patience."

"I'm not concerned about him."

Freddie lifted his hands and put on a patient smile. He dropped his hands and replied, "Maybe not, but you need to be concerned that he proves I'm not the only one that sees your behavior… and it _needs to stop_…" Freddie frowned as he finished with a dark tone meant to dig at the taller teenager, "It already cost you Jade. What more is it going to cost you?"

Beck clenched his jaw tight and blew out a hard breath through his nose. He held his stare on the shorter teenager and Freddie matched it. They both started visually sizing the other one up to see if their conversation would go further than just words.

Freddie finally looked down for a moment with a tired smile forming on his face then looked back up to meet the longer haired teenager's eyes. "I have a suggestion… _as your friend of course_: man up and go apologize to Trina. Simple as that, so you can look yourself in the mirror in the morning… so _I_ can look at you without being disgusted."

Freddie stared at him hard with a deep frown for a few more moments then turned and headed out of the classroom.

Beck stood there with his jaw clenched and staring hard at the closed door.

* * *

><p>A few minutes later, Freddie retook his seat with an even expression on his face and started back on his lunch. Everyone glanced at one another then to him waiting for him to say something. He looked up from his food and quickly spoke, "I've said my piece to Beck; it's up to him to be a man now." He started back on his lunch without another word, but a supportive glance towards Trina.<p>

The older Vega sister smiled and understood his gesture of support.

Jade blew out a breath through her nose and started on her own lunch as she wasn't surprised by his actions. Freddie was just being Freddie in her eyes and even if Beck was on the other side of the argument, she really didn't want Freddie to be any other way… her nice guy… even if it was for Trina.

Asphalt Café  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Wednesday, November 9, 2011<p>

Freddie didn't see Beck for the rest of Tuesday afternoon and apparently neither did Jade as she didn't mention seeing him. He hadn't heard anything about whether the actor had took his advice, but he was fine that he had made his position clear for Beck and the rest of the group. Jade had made no comment at all about him speaking with Beck that afternoon or night. Apparently she didn't want to get involved and Freddie was fine with it since it didn't concern them as a couple and didn't see the need for any undue conflict between her and Beck (and maybe there was a tiny piece of him that was concerned that she would take Beck's side).

The students were getting a short break between first and second periods for some reason that the school wasn't telling them, but no one was complaining as everyone was either roaming the halls or at the Asphalt Café. That was where Freddie, Jade, Ava and Dusty were hanging out at one of the blue tables as they waited for the next class period to start.

Sinjin came running up behind Dusty and Ava and spoke excitedly, "The First Lady was on iCarly last night." He gave Ava a peck on the cheek then had a seat next to his girlfriend.

"I couldn't turn the video off fast enough," Dusty spat out in disgust and rolled his eyes.

"What?" Freddie asked with a confused expression.

"The First Lady of the United States was on iCarly last night," Sinjin reiterated with a grin plastered on his face.

Jade narrowed her eyes and asked for another confirmation to see if she heard correctly from Sinjin, "Wait Michelle Obama was on iCarly last night? On Tuesday?"

Ava spoke up, "It was obviously a special one with her on it if they are having one on Tuesday instead of Friday."

Freddie took a few moments to process how she could have possibly been on the show. He looked to TheSlap's web-master with a raised eyebrow. "Why did you turn it off?"

Dusty leaned forward and spoke with an annoyed tone, "Because I don't like listening to people lie to my face and think I'm too stupid not to realize it or those that think they can run my life better than I can."

Freddie blinked and shook his head for a moment. "What are you talking about?"

The leaner teenager groaned out a little annoyed from the question then answered with a hint of sarcasm, "I'm talking about her bullshit about supporting the military when she and her husband don't give a damn about them."

The Seattle native put on a look of surprise as he asked, "Dude?"

Dusty narrowed his eyes on the tech-producer. "What? Her husband didn't want to pay them back in April. He called it 'a distraction' during his and the Republicans' little pissing contest with one another. I'm not buying that nonsense that she or him actually caring about them after that. I wonder if Carly was too star struck to realize that her dad wouldn't have been paid six months ago if the President went through with his game of chicken or she's just that good an actress and had to swallow her disgust. Does her brother make enough on his art to pay the rent or would they have missed a rent payment? From what you guys showed on the show over the years, it looks like a pretty nice apartment."

The other four teenagers looked at him with a little bit of shock at seeing how passionate he had gotten over the issue.

The Southern teenager snorted out a breath then continued, "What? I have family in the military. We keep up with this stuff as in 'How am I going to pay my bills if they don't pay me this month?'" He motioned to presumably his phone in his pocket as he finished, "Oh, I can back up what I'm saying if I need to show you the PDF file, so I'm not making it up."

He shook his head as he finished putting his last two cents in, "I know if I had the chance to speak with her, I'd thank her, I'd thank her for forcing the school to start serving that shit in the cafeteria that we don't eat but just dump in the trashcan when they give it to us. Thank her for thinking she knows better than us or our parents about what we should eat."

The other teenagers looked to one another and nonverbally agreed with him on that point. All L.A. county schools had switched to a new menu at the start of the new school year due to the First Lady's push for healthier food standards in school would get the students to eat healthier, but a lot of them thought the food tasted horrible and threw it away. There was talk already among the county school officials of trying to get back at least some of the edible menu. Most of them thanked whatever deity they believed in that they had the Grub Truck (even with its questionable health standards) as opposed to eating the mess served in the cafeteria.

Freddie tried to reason with his friend with a calm suggestion, "Don't you see that's still a little harsh?"

Dusty snorted out, "It's the truth. It's none of her damn business what I eat if I pay for it with my own money. I can run my own life without her input, thank you very much. Have you ever had people in your life that thought they knew better on how to run it than you did then use force to get you to do what they wanted when you disagreed with them? That's exactly what she's doing. That's nothing but bullying us to live the way she thinks we should live, plain and simple."

Freddie deeply frowned as he looked to the other teenager.

Dusty leaned backwards and put on an expression of realization and a hint of a smirk. "So, you have had people that thought they knew better than you then tried to make you do what they wanted?" He glanced down to look at the table and commented with a hint of sarcasm, "It doesn't take a genius to figure out who those people are."

The tech-producer frowned as he looked to the table to break eye contact.

Dusty caught sight of Jade's hard glare directed at him. He wasn't frightened of it, but knew that he should drop it because she was inadvertently clearly signaling that he was right. He looked to Freddie and spoke with a firm voice, "Everyone, including me, has their theories why you left Seattle, but I won't say anything behind your back that I'm not willing to say to your face." He turned to have a sip from his soft drink that he had brought from home since one couldn't buy them from school until after lunch.

Jade didn't look to happy that he had made a further comment, but Freddie gave him a nod in understanding that anybody (which was everyone outside the group and the trio along with Spencer, Mrs. West and Colonel Shay) that didn't know what had happened had talked for months their theories on why he left, but Dusty wasn't willing to join in the rumor and gossip mill.

Before there was any further discussion, Lane quickly ran up behind Ava, Sinjin and Dusty out of breath.

Freddie looked to him with concern as the guidance counselor was catching his breath. He cleared his throat and nervously spoke, "Ah Freddie, someone would like to see you."

Freddie raised a curious eyebrow. "Okay?"

The guidance counselor stressed his answer, "It's someone really important."

Lane's tone told him that he shouldn't take his time, so he quickly got up from his seat with Jade following suit. Lane quickly led the couple back to the school with them bidding a quick farewell to their friends.

* * *

><p>A minute or so later, Lane opened the door to the principal's office and let the couple inside. They were expecting to see Helen, but instead they were greeted by several Secret Service Agents standing around the surprise visitor: First Lady Michelle Obama. She was eagerly chatting with Helen then turned to greet the couple with a warm smile, "Hello Freddie."<p>

He blinked then looked to Jade who was equally shocked and did nothing to hide her feelings from her face.

He gave her a respectful nod of his head as he answered, "Ah… hello Madam First Lady."

She looked to Jade for an expected introduction.

Freddie was happy to oblige with a glance to blue streaked hair girlfriend, "This is my girlfriend, Jade West."

"Hello Jade."

The raven haired girl cleared her throat and answered trying to keep the nervousness out of her voice, "Hello Miss First Lady."

She wore a big smile as she continued, "Freddie, I was passing through L.A. and I wanted to thank you for what you did for Carly. I know it meant a lot to her and all the other military families watching, even if you're not on the show anymore."

He nodded along. He answered as if his answer was the most obvious answer in the world, "What else could I have done ma'am? She… it's complicated between us, but she's important and I have a lot of respect for her father."

The First Lady let out a soft laugh. "I suppose there isn't… my girls are sorry that you left the show. I know it is probably personal, but I'd be remiss if I didn't ask for my girls. I know they'd be upset if I didn't at least ask."

Freddie cleared his throat and met her eyes. "I understand ma'am. A part of me is too, but it was the necessary thing to do; I left the show and Seattle for deeply personal reasons and I hope your daughters can understand and respect my privacy on the matter." He turned his head and looked Jade right in the eyes and gave her the most genuine smile he thought possible and whispered loud enough for everyone in the room, "I'm quite happy where I'm at."

Jade slightly bowed her head to break eye contact and hide her smile.

Mrs. Obama gave him an understanding nod as a smile played on her own face.

A heavy-set agent whispered into her ear and if Freddie or Jade had watched the program last night, they would have realized he was the same one that told her that she couldn't talk about the secret robot she was construction.

The First Lady smiled softly then looked to Freddie. "I'm sorry my stop is so short, but…"

Freddie picked up, "I understand Miss First Lady. You are quite a busy person and I'm humbled that you'd take the time to see me."

"Take care Freddie."

He gave her a respectful smile and answered, "You too ma'am."

The next moment the Secret Service Agents ushered her out the door leaving the couple, Lane and Helen in the office.

Freddie blew out a breath and gave Jade a nervous smile.

She let out a soft laugh, "That was interesting."

Lane blew out his own breath and agreed, "Tell me about it," drawing everyone's attention.

Music Room

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Wednesday, November 9, 2011

André laughed out as he sat across Freddie helping him practice his chords as each had a guitar in their respective hands, "Wow, the First Lady personally stopped by to see you? That's why the held up classes this morning?"

Freddie shrugged a shoulder as he kept his attention on the chords he was trying to play. "Yep, she said she was passing through L.A. and wanted to thank me for what I did for Carly. Show my support for the troops and all."

"That must have been some surprise."

The brown eyed teenager sounded to André's ears that he was irritated having to reply, "It wasn't exactly on my list of things that I thought would happen today."

André turned back to his guitar and played another section of music for Freddie to try. The tech-producer mimicked the selection without much problem or any audible mistakes.

The songsmith asked as the near blank expression on Freddie's face finally started to bother him, "Freddie's what up?"

"Nothing," he casually responded as he played over what André just showed him.

"Then why is it I'm having to pull conversation out of you? The First Lady shows up to personally thank you and you don't want to talk about it? You look like you'd rather not be here," he finished a bit annoyed.

Freddie blew out a soft breath from his nose as he answered with a slightly flippant tone, "I really don't have much to say to you at the moment and small talk isn't really required for you to teach me to play."

"Still upset about what we did to Trina?"

He replied with a little sarcasm in his voice, "Since I haven't heard any of you really apologize to her, yeah I am still bothered by it."

André laughed out nervously, "Freddie, look… I'm not seeing what the big deal is. Trina started and we helped Beck teach her a lesson. You know, it's Trina."

Freddie looked up from his guitar and stared at the other teenager for a split second before snapping out, "And he's Freddie and she's Sam and they're just like that so it gives us a license not to give a damn about what bad stuff happens to him. Heck, we can do bad stuff to him too, who cares? He's only Freddie. It happens."

André swallowed down nervously as he met Freddie's eyes.

He continued with a firm voice, "I've lived that nonsense and I didn't appreciate it and I know Trina didn't appreciate it even if she didn't handle her feelings with Beck in the best way. She may not be your 'bestest' friend, but she's a human being that deserves some respect. She really hasn't done anything to deserve not getting at least that much from the rest of you. Okay, you find her annoying, but that doesn't give you a right to do that to her."

The songsmith looked a little nervous as he answered, "Hey, I was just backing my friend."

Freddie snorted out, "So was Carly, didn't make it right what she allowed to happen to me." He sat the guitar down beside to lean against the chair and turned to focus on André. "Does loyalty to a friend cover up the fact that he's doing something wrong? What if the next time he decides that it's Tori that needs to learn some lesson? Are you going to join in or take Tori's side?"

André set his jaw tight for a moment as realized his answer in an instance.

Freddie gave a knowing grin as he stated, "Thought so."

André looked down the floor and apparently looked as if he was thinking over what Freddie had said.

Freddie shook his head and let out a tired breath, "Look André… all this time I've known you, you've been this steady rock. The one everyone can count on for trying to do the right thing… including me even with the whole love song to Jade…"

André couldn't help but think about what he had told Tori about the promise that he made with his grandmother before she lost her mind: 'I'd never be a bad person'.

"…and I'm having trouble squaring with what you helped Beck do with how I think of you. That's not the André I know…"

The songsmith sat in silence for a moment as he processed what the tech-producer thought of him and what it meant to him.

Freddie unexpectedly stood up and picked up his guitar. "You know what? I'm just not feeling it today. Let's just pick this up next week." He walked over the stand for the school's guitars and put his away without waiting for André to respond. "I'll see you tomorrow André, later," he called out as he scooped up his book bag and headed out the door.

Freddie walked out the door and left the musician sitting in silence.

Library/Media Center  
>Hollywood Arts High School<p>

The Hollywood Arts' library was not surprisingly the quietest place in the school even with a number of students busy working on various things. The school was always busy with afternoon activities and the library was no different with students doing research or using library space to work on something for some project (even if there were plenty of empty classrooms to use).

Jade had monopolized a table as she always did on Wednesday afternoon and the other students were not inclined to bother the pale actress of sharing her table. She glanced over another question in her open textbook resting on the table as she scribbled her answer on her paper, but suddenly felt someone slide up beside her to her left and plant a soft kiss on her left cheek.

She frowned and turned her head ready to slap whoever had the nerve to kiss her, but blinked in surprise when she saw Freddie's warm smile.

"Hey," he whispered.

"Hey," she answered surprisingly as she focused on his eyes. She glanced at her phone as she wondered if she really had lost track of time getting so involved with her homework. She looked back up to meet his eyes with a slight frown on her lips. "It's barely after three-thirty."

He shrugged his shoulders and gave her a weak smile. "I'm just not accomplishing anything today. I guess I'm not in the mood, so I called it quits a little early."

Her eyes narrowed on her handsome boyfriend and slowly asked, "And André's cool with that?"

Freddie raised a corner of his mouth as he answered with a hint of sarcasm, "You know… I didn't ask."

The raven haired girl slightly frowned, but refrained from commenting as she studied her boyfriend's eyes.

He wore a smile as if nothing was wrong and asked, "So, ah… do you want to head home now or do you want to finish up what you're doing? I can wait."

She shook her head and her dark locks softly bounced on her shoulders. "Just let me wrap up this last problem and we can go."

He smiled in return as if nothing was wrong and answered, "Okay."

She nodded in response and blew out a soft breath through her nose, but the look in her eyes showed her concern of Freddie apparently ditching André for the afternoon.

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Freddie finished washing and rinsing that last dish and placing it in the dish drainer after dinner. He could have left the dishes to the dishwasher, but he found the need to immerse himself into something monotonous and not have to think about anything after the last two days.

After rinsing and drying his hands, he turned and headed up the stairs. He passed Jade's room and caught sight of her inside, her sitting and typing way at her laptop in her lap. He took a moment to rest against the doorframe to watch her concentrate on whatever she was working on. She looked up from the laptop, apparently sensing his presence at the doorway and smiled towards the brown haired teenager.

"Hey," she whispered with a welcoming tone.

"Hey," he replied as he let out a soft breath. "Just passing by, but I saw you and… I didn't mean to disturb you."

"No, it's fine… I'm just getting some thoughts down about a new screenplay, brainstorming a little bit."

"Oh, ah… need a sounding board I'd be happy, but…"

Her brow furled with curiosity at his attempt to offer to help her.

He thumbed over his shoulder towards his room and admitted with a hesitant voice, "I was heading to my room… I was going to make a phone call."

She gave a small smile and a nod of her head as she realized from his tone and expression he probably wasn't going to call his mother. She sat her laptop on the floor for a moment then walked over to him for a brief kiss on his cheek. She took a deep breath and put on the most supportive expression she could muster and suppress her own feelings for the brunette. "Talk as long as you have to."

He nodded his thanks then pushed away from the doorframe so she could close her bedroom door and give him some privacy.

The tech-producer started back down the hallway then shut his bedroom door behind him after entering his room. He blew out a breath then reached for his new phone sitting on his desk. He dialed his intended number and held the pear shaped phone to his ear waiting for the other person to pick up. He started as soon as he heard the other person pick up, "Hey Carly—I'm doing alright. How are you doing? Guess who I saw today?"

* * *

><p>Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter… I almost want to call it a housekeepingsetup before the next couple of ones are really plot moving. I have Thanksgiving to cover (with Freddie finally meeting Mr. West) then 'A Christmas Tori' then… well I think you really want to come back for the chapter after that which covers around their New Year's.

In case you're wondering, what Dusty said was true about L.A. county school lunches during this school year. Look up the story on-line, it's pretty funny about the kids throwing away their food and started up a black-market of junk food and sodas so they can get through the day (even some teachers go in on the act). They announced in January that they were going to revise their menus again.

Special Guest Appearance by Michelle Obama as Herself

Guest Appearance by Dan Schneider as Secret Service Agent


	26. Chapter 26

Hello everyone. I hope everyone had a nice week and weekend including Memorial Day. Sorry for the lateness of this chapter, but it turned out far longer than I expected, so I'm having to split it into two chapters. This is the first half of this weeks update and I hope to post the second one after some more editing later today since I feel that they should stay together, so the end of this chapter is not intended as a cliffhanger. However, I probably will be skipping next week's update.

Wickedmatt717: Thank you for your interest in my writing technique. For some stories I let my muse take me where it wants to go and I go back and edit (such as iDon't Want to Wake Up). However, for most of my stories including this one, especially this one, I have a broad outline of where the story is going and a more detailed outline several chapters ahead. When I reach a new chapter, I use the outline as a skeleton and write from there, altering it where I see fit. Afterwards, I go back and extensively edit it for details, grammar, and different ways to say the same thing in a better or clearer way. I found this approach allows me to be flexible in future chapters in case I realize a better approach or idea that could serve the story better than my original plans or new bits of information comes out in both shows that are backwards compatible.

Warning: A little crude humor and mature subject matter.

* * *

><p>Chapter 26<p>

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Thursday, November 10, 2011

The Thursday morning apparently had been just another typical morning for the Hollywood Arts students when the group of friends met up in Sikowitz's class. In the Advance Acting Class, Sikowitz had been his usual self as he instructed them on using improvisation to stay in character when the unexpected happened during a scene. It was more like review for the group of friends since their whole experience with their sleepover at Sikowitz's, but since it was the advance acting class and made up of a combination of students from all of the acting teachers' lower level acting classes of the previous semester, they didn't necessarily have the same thoroughness given to the topic as Sikowitz had went through with his students.

As Jade had snuggled up beside and rested her head on Freddie's shoulder and they listened to the lecture, the brown eyed teenager had paid more attention to his classmates' reactions since he had more practical experience improvising scenes when the unexpected happened on iCarly then whatever Sikowitz could lecture him. He noticed the somber expressions from André and Robbie as the pair listened to the eccentric acting teacher. Rex would occasionally look up at his handler and shake his head for a moment then look back at Sikowitz teaching the class.

Freddie glanced over a few time to look at Beck sitting on the opposite group of seats in the classroom behind Tori. That in of itself was unusual because Beck would usually sit on the other side of Jade, but apparently opted out of sitting next to his ex. The pair did make eye contact a few times, but they looked to each other with guarded stares each time until Beck would turn his attention back to Sikowitz. The tech-producer figured that Beck didn't like getting called out with his behavior and from what he could figure, Dusty had been partially right that no one was willing to do that to the handsome actor because of their attractiveness to him or maybe former fear of Jade.

The class wrapped up in no time from Freddie's perspective and he quickly went to his locker to swap out a book for his next period before meeting up with Jade for lunch. As he was doing so, he turned his head to see Robbie approach with Rex resting on his left hand as they made their way through the hall to head for the Asphalt Café. The tech-producer closed the light blue coated locker and gave the ventriloquist a curious expression at seeing the frown on the curly haired teen's face. He ignored the expression for a moment and casually greeted, "Hey Robbie."

"Hey," he answered with a downbeat tone and avoided eye contact.

Rex sighed loudly and shook his head.

Freddie gave the puppet a curious eyebrow, but turned his attention to Robbie. He gave the ventriloquist a supportive smile as he asked, "What's wrong Robbie?"

Rex spoke up with an irritated tone, "Oh, he's upset that you embarrassed him about helping Beck." Robbie looked at the puppet with his jaw set tight and narrowed gaze. The puppet looked to his handler with his usual stare and continued, "He was like this all last night and I'm already sick of it."

Freddie looked to Rex and felt somewhat sad that the curly haired teenager had to use the puppet to communicate with him. He gave his friend a patient smile and suggested, "Then why don't you just apologize? That should make you feel better, clear your conscious, get the weight off your shoulders, etc, etc."

Rex interrupted anything Robbie was about to say, "I don't see what's the big deal? It's just Trina. She's such a nuisance. Why shouldn't someone point that out? I'm just mad I wasn't there to see it." The puppet started laughing at his last statement.

Freddie frowned and looked to the puppet then over to his handler. Robbie had the decency to at least look embarrassed. "You have a choice Robbie: be man enough to stand behind what you did and just deal with your feelings or be man enough to apologize. It is entirely up to you, but I think the apology would be the better choice for you."

Rex sighed then butted into the conversation, "I say go apologize if it will get you to stop moping. It's embarrassing."

Robbie closed his eyes and blew out a breath through is nose.

Freddie wore a patient smile as he commented, "One day you're going to have to stand up for yourself… and not hide behind Rex. Trust me on that… I waited far too long… and it cost me dearly. I don't want to see the same happen to you."

Robbie nodded along and glanced down to the ground.

Freddie patted the side of his arm and motioned his head towards the exit. "Come on, let's go get some lunch."

The glasses wearing teenager seemed to brighten up and started walking with the tech-producer.

"Hey, I heard what you said!" the puppet called out.

"I stand behind it Rex," the tech-producer confidently shouted back.

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Friday, November 11, 2011

Freddie and Trina were sitting at their usual table waiting for the rest of the group to arrive as they had stayed to have some discussion with Sikowitz after class. The former Seattleite opted to go and let them have whatever conversation they wanted with the eccentric acting teacher, because they had the last lunch of the day and he already hated having to wait so long to each as he was starving. He was also sort of grateful with the short respite of them all gathering for lunch as he wanted to check on Trina and he couldn't do that unless he wanted to catch her before she left school or make a trip to the Vegas' house. Also, yesterday's lunch was filled with awkward tension and silence with Robbie and André's apprehensiveness being at the table and Beck's withdrawn demeanor with only the occasional glace across the table with Freddie, which the slightly shorter teenager met each time without hesitation.

Freddie was sipping on his drink as Trina finished munching on a French fry and commented, "Robbie apologized to me yesterday."

He smiled and nodded along while he sat his drink down on the table. "That's nice to hear."

The dark brunette shrugged a shoulder as she commented lazily, "It was kind of awkward and Rex didn't like it."

Freddie suppressed a soft laugh then replied with a lighthearted tone, "That's just the side of Robbie that doesn't want to admit he was wrong. We all have that little bit of ego that thinks we are never wrong about anything."

Trina grinned widely as she retorted, "Wellll… I guess some people have that problem of not being right all the time. I wouldn't know how that is."

Freddie didn't even attempt to hide his laughter even if he wasn't sure she was joking or being serious. The brunette joined his laughter for a few seconds until a calm silence fell between them. A few seconds later, Trina spoke up with an odd hesitation in her voice, "André hasn't apologized… neither has Beck."

Freddie blew out a soft breath through his nose and wore a weary smile. After taking a few moments to mull over how he should respond, he answered, "I think André will… as for Beck, I might have hurt his pride too much to apologize with my talk with him… I don't think he's used to being called out for what he does or he simply doesn't think he did anything wrong,"

The L.A. immigrant glanced down at the blue grated table for a moment then commented, "I still think you didn't handle it right, but that didn't give him the right to treat you like that."

The older Vega sister gave him a small smile as she responded, "Thanks… for taking my side. People don't usually do that for me."

A soft smile formed on his face as he answered, "I took both your sides… stand with you and maybe try to help them see maybe they should make a different choice.

"Smooth Freddie, real smooth," she commented with a smirk sent in his direction.

"Usually that's called charm, but I'll take it," he answered with a soft laugh. He looked up to meet her eyes and whispered with a calm voice, "I've seen enough people sit on their hands when they see something wrong and they use loyalty to a friend as a justification for their behavior."

Trina nodded in understanding then silence fell between the pair again after a few more moments until Trina lifted a corner of her mouth and looked somewhat embarrassed, much to the surprise of Freddie as he couldn't recall a time he had seen her embarrassed. She admitted with a soft tone, "I'm still interested in Beck though."

He blew out a soft breath through his nose and his shoulders slumped. A piece of him was disappointed with that information, but he knew it was her decision to make on who she liked and couldn't push his view on who she should date way or the other… oh, he definitely understood about that part, but that didn't mean he couldn't inform her of his opinion. "That's your decision, but… I think you might want to reconsider it since he's shown not to exactly know how to be respectful to you or generally act well with the ladies. I think he needs to learn how to be a better boyfriend before he gets into another relationship."

He let out a soft breath as he finally admitted out loud his reservations with Beck.

The brunette slightly tilted her head to the side as she looked to the muscular teenager. "Would you have given that advice to Jade before you two got together? I mean, she's Jade. There's a reason why people think she can be a real gank."

Freddie let out a tired breath through his mouth as he didn't appreciate people thinking such a thing about Jade, but he knew before her breakup with Beck, it was probably a well deserved description from all the stories that he heard… his mean girl was mean after all. He met Trina's eyes and spoke, "Maybe I'm a little disingenuous and hypocritical, but she never mistreated me before we got together or since. We were together for about three weeks before we _got together_ and frankly she treated me better during that time than my so-called friends in Seattle the entire time I knew them. She could be snippy at times because she had just broken up with Beck and that's a little bit the way she is, but apparently she treated me like she does André, so her behavior isn't as universal as people think." He shrugged a shoulder then continued, "Then breaking up with Beck was a rude awaking for her on how she treated others. She's realized what it cost her for acting that way and she's working on it, but I have my doubts that Beck has realized such a thing."

Trina looked down at her meal and from what Freddie could tell from her facial expression, she was seriously thinking on what he had said to her. She looked up at him with a playful smile, "Or maybe you just like mean girls?"

Freddie cracked a smile. "It does turn out that I actually do like mean girls."

Trina cracked a smile and the pair shared a small laugh.

The two friends' private bonding moment was interrupted as André approached the table, but without any lunch. André was ringing his hands then stuffed them in his pockets as he looked to the older Vega. "Ah Trina? Do you have a second?"

Freddie and Trina glanced at one another. The tech producer politely smiled as he commented, "I think I'll go see if I can find Jade." He didn't wait for either of his friends to comment as he got up from his seat then headed to meet Jade halfway as she approached the table so they could find somewhere else to sit for lunch.

Trina tried to suppress a gloating smile of André coming to what she assumed was to apologize to her as she looked up to a nervous looking songsmith. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

* * *

><p>The last period of the day flew by then the weekend came and went for the students of Hollywood Arts: Freddie made a call to Spencer to wish him a happy thirtieth birthday on Friday (which the artist had mixed feelings about thinking he might finally start having to be a real adult) and put in some extra time at the Pear Store to make up for missing the previous weekend, Jade had taken the time to work on her next script for either another play or short-film, André started teaching Tori how to play the piano, Robbie took Cat out to play 'baby golf', Freddie and André hit the Hollywood Arts' weight room on Sunday and Beck was mysterious incommunicado and assumed to perhaps making a trip up to Canada. It was just a typical weekend for the teenagers.<p>

After the weekend, the rest of the week went by with nothing particularly out of the ordinary (as Hollywood Arts would define ordinary). The teachers were quite aware that the students would slack off the next week with only three days of school before Thanksgiving and a number would probably take off Wednesday as well to make it a five day weekend, so they pushed to get as much in before the week was out.

Freddie spoke with Carly again over the phone about trivial matters as just a break from all the drama having transpired from the last time they saw one another. It was going to be a slow and steady journey, but the former Seattleite felt that things were on the right track to find peace with the girl that held his heart for so long (and would always hold at least a little piece being his first love) and his past even if he struggled with the question André posed to him about the difference in his attitude and choice between Carly and Gibby.

The details of Freddie's royalties from the Pear Company and Industrial Light and Magic had finally been worked out (along with a number of other non-monetary considerations) and he was looking at some nice monthly checks from both companies for a very long time as they each developed the technology of his camera for their own purposes. He also received a nice lump sum incase either decided to abandon the research and ending the need to pay him royalties in the near future. The Pear Company even upped their original offer after the incident at the Seattle Pear Store in the hopes to avoid a lawsuit on Freddie's part. He had even settled for Natalie only to be demoted to make them feel that he wasn't taking advantage of them. He heard however that she had quite in disgust anyway making the whole thing a mute point except them giving her a very negative job reference if asked.

He was quite happy that his future college tuition was already paid for as he was not going to trust his mother giving him any money from the profits of selling the red-beak chicks to help pay for schooling as he was sure she'd just try to use it to bargain with him to go to WU. He was also quite pleased that he set aside a little to pay for some of Jade's future schooling as a surprise graduation gift when they left Hollywood Arts; the gift being a combination of appreciation for her sticking by his side regardless of being a couple and his general affection for her. It was a blurry line in his mind and heart for why he would surprise her half a year from now, but it wasn't a particular conflict that he felt really needed to be fought or resolved.

Freddie and André had their weekly guitar lesson and planned for sometime after Thanksgiving to have Freddie play with him at some event. He skipped this week's session with Lane as he felt like he really didn't have anything to discuss. Lane may have felt differently as the first major holiday for the couple was approaching and it apparently wasn't on the teenager's mind.

Beck had still not apologized to Trina during the week.

It may have been vanity or arrogance on Freddie's part, but he thought the reason that Beck hadn't apologized was that he didn't want to give Freddie the satisfaction of being the one that got the good looking actor to do something or admit he was right about the situation.

However, Trina had apparently let Beck off the hook without an apology and as much as Freddie hated the idea that Beck wasn't going to take responsibility for his 'lesson' to Trina, he was going to respect Trina's wishes and not bring up that matter again with Beck, but that didn't mean he wouldn't be a little more attentive of Beck's behavior in the future.

Now it was only a few days before Thanksgiving…

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Saturday, November 19, 2011

Freddie, Jade and Mrs. West were sitting at the dinning room table having an early dinner. The Pear company employee was starving after working a particularly grueling day at the Brilliance Bar as people wanted last minute checkups to their various Pear products before Thanksgiving and shared that bit of news between mouthfuls of food.

Mrs. West glanced over to her daughter for a moment then back to Freddie before asking, "Speaking of Thanksgiving, what are your plans? Are you going back up to Seattle or are you going to stay with us?"

Freddie stopped his fork halfway up to his mouth as he cautiously answered, "I haven't given it much thought, but…"

Mrs. West relaxed in her chair and brought her right knee up to rest the bottom of her foot against the edge of her seat and wrapped her arms around her leg. "Do you want to go up?"

Freddie set the fork back down in his plate of potatoes and chicken and cracked a hesitant smile and looked to the lovely West Matriarch. He admitted with a soft voice, "Not really… I'm not really interested in seeing my aunts or cousins. I don't like my cousin Amanda. She's… icky. My Aunt Jennifer took Lucas' side over respecting my opinion of not thinking he is funny as everyone else. She even called me names for it, so I really don't want to see or deal with her now that I have a choice. The rest… they don't care much for me and after everything that's happened, I don't want to pretend to like people just to keep things civil. I'm just too tired of having to act."

The brown eye teenager shook his head as he looked down at his plate. "Even my second cousin Stephanie doesn't like me… she's two or three now… she didn't even like me when she was a baby. I could never get her to laugh and when she saw my face she'd immediately go to a blank expression. My mom would even remind me that she didn't like me and need me to help get her to calm down to go to sleep the one time we had to look after her."

Mrs. West's brow slightly furled as he took in that information about Marissa. She was instantly reminded of Steven's opinion of the Benson Matriarch he had told her when they were packing Freddie's things to move.

Jade shrugged a shoulder and commented, "It's pretty obvious the baby is just evil." She took a sip from her glass as Freddie blinked at her for a few seconds.

He finally processed what she said and shouted as he was completely shocked by the answer, "What?"

The dark haired teenager sat the glass back down and looked to her boyfriend with a patient expression. "If she's reacting that way to _you_ then there is obviously something wrong with _her_. Born messed up."

Freddie gave her a weary look from the opinion, but Jade maintained her composure as she continued, "What makes her any different from all the people in Seattle? Everyone else there is messed up when it comes to you. There certainly isn't thing wrong with you for them to treat you like that."

He looked down and palmed his forehead as he was forced to at least see her point even if he didn't want to agree with it in regards to Stephanie.

Mrs. West gave him a welcoming smile and slight shake of her head in the hopes to take his mind off her daughter's point. "If you feel that way, then have Thanksgiving with us. If your mother is the only one you really want to see then you can invite her down for the weekend. We have an extra bedroom for her."

The brown eyed teenager raised his head out of his palm and looked to Mrs. West with a relived smile from the suggestion.

Jade frowned as she didn't particularly like her mother's suggestion, but she realized that it was better than him going up to Seattle while she stayed here for the holiday since she doubted that his mother would have liked her going up there with him and staying for the weekend. Also, she didn't want to have to deal with Sam. Fear was the last thing she felt towards Sam (seething rage and hatred would be a far better description), but there were times one just didn't want to have to deal with the hassle and a four day weekend wasn't something she wanted to waste on the blonde hair she-demon or Carly.

Freddie gave the West Matriarch a relieved smile as he responded, "Thanks… I'll give her a call tonight. I think I can convince her that it'd be best for her to come down."

"You're welcome," she answered with a small smile.

The brown eyed teenager turned back to his meal and finished a few more mouthfuls of his food then took a swallow of his drink to wash it down. He blew out a soft breath out of his noise then stood up and gave a tired smile to the West ladies. He commented with a tired voice, "If you will excuse me, I think I need a nap. It's been a _long_ day."

Mrs. West nodded along as Freddie passed the pale screenwriter and gave her a kiss on the cheek which she leaned into and closed her eyes.

Mrs. West slightly bowed her head and tried to suppress her smirk from the open display of affection that the couple usually kept discrete.

Jade immediately looked to her mother as Freddie disappeared around the corner in the kitchen and up the stairwell. "We really have to put up with her for the weekend?"

She lifted her head and met her daughter's eyes and lifted a corner of her mouth. "Would you whether go up there and spend the weekend?"

Jade deeply frowned and closed her eyes.

The older West smirked at the small verbal victory over her daughter then continued, "Then I guess we will have to put up with her for the weekend. Just look at it as just another member of the family you'll have to tolerate this weekend."

Jade opened her eyes and blew out a breath of disgust as she asked, "So we're going to grandfather and grandmother's house? We're going to see the rest of the family?"

"Yes."

Jade rolled her eyes. She was going to have to put up with Mrs. Benson and her father's new wife along with her cousins she didn't care for. "Just great… I'm use to them, but she just so—"

"Nuts?" her mother supplied with a raised eyebrow.

"To start with," she answered without trying to hide a bit of sarcasm in her voice.

"That may be so, but he still wants to have a relationship with his mother and we shouldn't interfere with that as long as she doesn't try to interfere with his life or harm him."

She squinted her eyes and retorted in disgust, "Her mere presence _is_ harmful to him. She chipped him like a dog for God sakes."

Mrs. West slightly bowed her head as Jade continued about what she thought of Freddie's mother, "She looks at him like he's still a baby who can't wipe his own behind without her help. The woman needs professional help and I think he should avoid as much contact with her as possible until she gets some real help. I think their weekly phone conversations are enough."

Ruby leaned back in her chair and commented, "If you really feel that way then you need to go up there right now and tell him that."

Jade crossed her arms and rested them on the table as she leaned forward to meet her mother's eyes. She blew out a disgusted breath and slightly shook her head. Her voice suddenly became tired as she whispered, "I can't tell him that… he still loves her despite what she's done all his life and whatever resentment he feels towards her for everything. He won't listen to me on that point. He won't cut her out of his life until she gets help."

The raven haired mother wondered for a moment if her daughter was talking about Mrs. Benson or Carly. She didn't want to have that conversation for the moment, so continued with the apparent focus of their conversation, "Jade, I'm not blind to where it comes to all the things Marissa has done to Freddie and I quite frankly agree with Steven about her, but I can't—"

Jade raised her pierced eyebrow and curiously asked, "What does he think?"

Ruby paused for a moment then hesitantly answered, "He thinks there is a special place in Hell for her for the way she's treat Freddie…" She refrained from telling Jade the rest of his statement about believing that he'd be right next to her in that special place and how his belief made a spider-crack across her heart. '_Stubborn Shays_…' she had cursed when he first shared his thoughts on his own fate and she cursed again that belief.

The pale actress put on an even expression as she commented with a dry tone, "I can't disagree with him."

Ruby shook her head as she focused back on the present. She dropped her leg back on the floor and leaned forward to rest her arms on the table. "At the moment, where her soul goes after death is not my concern; the here and now are my concern. She is still his mother and his eighteenth birthday isn't until February fourth. She can make his life very difficult until then including insisting that he go back to Seattle if she really wanted him to go and there's not much I could do about it."

Jade shot up in her chair and her mother could see the abject fear in her bluish/green eyes.

Mrs. West blew out a soft breath through her nose as she tried to comfort her daughter while trying to impart a bit of wisdom to the teenager, "Sometimes we have to put on the forced smile and tolerate the intolerable for a time so that we can get the last laugh… so Freddie can have the last laugh on all of them."

The pale teenager nodded along as she understood the delicate game her mother was playing… regardless of calling her mother stupid one time on TheSlap, she understood how intelligent and cunning her mother could be to manipulate a situation to her advantage and made her such a successful VP at her advertising company. While her mother had those qualities, Jade had her own abilities to use and if she had to use her acting ability a little bit for Freddie's benefit then… acting is what she would do.

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The Hollywood Arts group of friends including even Sinjin, Ava and Dusty had all arrived a few minutes early to school and had a few minutes to chat at the stairwell before the start of their first classes. André, Tori, and Cat were sitting on the second to bottom step with Robbie sitting behind them, Freddie and Jade standing at the end of the railing with their backs towards the school entrance, Sinjin with his arm around Ava's waist standing on the third step resting against the railing with their backs to the girls' restroom and Dusty standing at the end of the railing. Beck was oddly missing from the group.

The group was in the middle of sharing how they were going to spend their Thanksgiving holiday and maybe see each other on Saturday or Sunday.

Cat was just finished up what her family was planning to do for Thanksgiving and that her brother was going to cook some of his Thanksgiving sausage. The teenagers nodded along with forced smiles and looked to one another trying to pretend that everything was fine with what she had told them. Dusty was the only one that appeared to have a genuine patient and understanding smile towards the red velvet haired teenager.

Cat caught sight of the Southern teenager's smile and asked with a hint of curiosity and warmth in her voice, "How are you going to celebrate Thanksgiving?"

Dusty smirked as he laughed out, "Well Sweetheart, I'm going back to Carolina. See my cousins and some old high school friends. I'm going to try to be a good ol' boy and get into some nice wholesome trouble. Get away from this crazy little state for a while and back into some semblance of normalcy. Avoid eating any turkey."

Freddie chuckled at the other teenager's description of his life in California.

The rest looked to him with curious expressions at his last comment. He recognized their confusion and quickly answered, "I just don't like picking on the turkey. I know it is an odd habit especially when I have no problem eating it on any other day." Before any of them could comment, he looked to Freddie and in a playful tone asked, "You sure I can't borrow your car and paint it orange? At least for the weekend?"

The other teenagers looked to one another with confusion on their faces and hoping one among them understood Dusty's question.

He raised an eyebrow as he gave a quick glance over the group of friends. "Ah… he has a sixty-nine Dodge Charger…"

The rest of the group still looked clueless about what he was talking about. Dusty closed his eyes and shook his head. He looked blew out a breath in disbelief and embarrassment of _their_ ignorance, "Oh my God… really? None of you get that cultural reference? They made a remake a few years ago… Jessica Simpson as Daisy Duke?"

Rex laughed out, "Oh she was hot in that movie."

Dusty tilted his head slightly to the side as he asked Robbie in a disbelieving tone, "Your right hand remembers the movie but you don't?" Dusty blinked as he realized what he said and looked to the rest of the group of friends. The males of the group immediately got the unintended remark including Rex who dropped his mouth open followed a moment later by the ladies except Cat. He let out an embarrassing laugh as he followed up, "That was not meant as any form of dirty joke."

Freddie spoke up louder than normal conversational volume would call for as he spoke with a cheerful expression on his face, "Anyway about my car? Ah no, besides I can't let you put three-thousand miles on it to get there and three-thousand to get back here."

Dusty snorted out, "I'd pay to have it shipped. You think I'm going to put that kind of mileage on my Shelby when I move back after graduation?"

Freddie noticed that Cat slightly frowned at hearing Dusty's comment about leaving after graduation. He wondered briefly if the redhead had any real lingering feelings for her short lived boyfriend or she was reacting as she would for anyone she had grown attached leaving.

The tech producer shook his head and cracked a smile. He looked down to André and asked with a casual conversational tone, "Your turn André; what's your plans?"

André smiled as he shared his plans, "We're just going to have an old fashion Thanksgiving with the entire family over."

Tori raised an eyebrow and asked in a tone that suggested that she already knew the answer, "Including your grandmother? She's going to leave the house?"

"Yep," the songwriter answered as he blew out a breath.

Tori whistled then commented, "That's going to be rough."

The Southern teenager spoke up, "I don't understand."

The songsmith looked to TheSlap's webmaster and answered with a lighthearted tone, "See, my grandmother is afraid of a lot of things and she doesn't usually leave the house. Her seeing the showcase that got Tori into Hollywood Arts was the first time she left her house in six years. She's that afraid of things."

Tori picked up, "She's just…"

Dusty pursed his lips and glanced to the floor for a moment before coming out and asking, "Your grandmother suffers from dementia?"

André gave a quick nod of his head as he rested his crossed forearms on his knees.

Dusty asked with a respectful tone, "How far has it progressed? Does she still recognize you?"

The songwriter blew out a soft breath and tilted his head to the side. He put on a tired smile as he answered, "She's moderate to severe at times… like not understanding a digital clock's digits are supposed to change or her reflection in a mirror, but she recognizes everyone."

The Southern teenager nodded as he answered with a soft voice, "That's good to hear… it can be pretty tough."

André's eyes opened wide and blew out a breath. He spoke with a lighthearted tone, "Oh you don't kn—"

"I know exactly how it is," Dusty quickly interrupted the muscular teenager with a surprisingly firm, almost sharp tone.

André snapped his head around to meet Dusty's stead gaze. "My grandfather suffered from Alzheimer… it was very mild for him, but he started having trouble recognizing me and my cousins."

The dreadlock wearing teenager slightly parted his mouth before he could form a proper response. He shut his mouth then gathered enough of his wits to ask, "Suffered? He passed on?"

Dusty tilted his head slightly to the side as he answered, "Yeah… he took his old sidearm from when he was in the Marines and shot himself in the head while he still had the majority of his facilities."

They all blinked at him wondering if he was serious or making a joke in bad taste. The expression he gave them made them quickly realized that he wasn't joking as the reserved expression turned into a blank expression as he finished, "In the letter he left, he wrote that he wanted to die with some dignity before he lost it all. He didn't want to end up not being able to remember grandma or my father and the rest of his children or a burden to them. He wanted to die as a man not as a child who couldn't recognize the world around him."

André failed to clear his throat several times, until he was finally able to speak out, "Ah… I'm sorry man… I really don't know what to say?"

He shrugged a shoulder in response. "There's really not anything to say Harris other than just living with your grandmother's odd… occurrences is a small price to pay for her to remember who you and _she_ are… and maybe save a little pity for ourselves since it's probably hereditary and it might be a fate we'll share."

The songsmith nodded along and accepted the other teenager's words.

Dusty spoke up with lighter tone, "Moving on from a depressing topic, Benson, you going back to Seattle for the holiday?"

Freddie shrugged a shoulder. "Ah… no, my mother's going to fly down."

Tori spoke with a furled brow as she rested her right forearm on André's shoulder, "You're not going up? I assume you have other family around other than your mom."

Freddie shook his head. "I do, I just don't want to deal with the rest of my family. They're… more trouble than they're worth for right now."

Jade put on a forced smile. "Yes, Mrs. Benson coming down should be… entertaining enough."

Dusty softly chuckled. "She doesn't approve of you?"

The blue streaked hair teenager slightly frowned and narrowed her eyes as she commented sarcastically, "I'm not exactly who she pictured her sweet baby boy of being with."

The Southern teenager responded with an overdramatic response, "No, really? What could she possibly have against such a sweet girl like you?"

Jade crossed her arms under her chest and narrowed her gaze on the brown haired teenager. The others of the group thought that he had lost his mind being that sarcastic to Jade.

He slightly chuckled as he responded to her gaze, "I'm just teasing you Angel Girl. What five minutes I've seen of Miss Benson, I can understand your apprehension of seeing her. She can be a real…"

Freddie raised an eyebrow as he was curious what the webmaster was going to say.

Dusty looked back to Freddie confidently as he continued, "Child comes to mind. I remember the greens incident on that one episode where she just came barging in to make you eat your vegetables or whatever she was raving about and well… I would have finished the 'Oh my God' statement just to piss her off for what she was trying to do. I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm bashing your mom, but that was just ridiculous and seemed like the behavior of a child that didn't get her way."

Freddie frowned as he instantly recalled the event that was the second to the last straw that led him to moving out temporarily. She may have relented slightly to get him to move back in, but had not forgotten how many times afterwards she had broken her word to get what she wanted including the incident about 'The Hammer' and Gunsmoke. However, it did provide him with additional emotional blackmail material to manipulate her into letting him move to Los Angeles. So, in a way, he got the last laugh with the greens incident.

"Yes well, hindsight his twenty-twenty, but it was an eye-opening experience… for her."

Dusty nodded his head to the side and commented with a half smile, "That must be an interesting story."

Freddie's mouth slightly parted as he started, "Ah…"

The first bell rang, signaling that the students of Hollywood Arts should start heading for their first period classes. The sitting students stood up while Dusty chuckled at the timing.

"Saved by the bell," Freddie mumbled to himself as he walked with Jade to his science class and the rest started on their way to their respective classes.

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The time was early evening as Freddie paced about his bedroom as he held his PearPhone to his ear.

"_So you're not coming up?"_ Carly asked from the other end and more than a thousand miles away.

Freddie stopped in his tracks just at the foot of his bed as the disappointment in the teenager's voice was easy to hear and for the first time in the long time, he felt sad for disappointing the brunette. He blew out a regretful breath as he answered, "Carly, I'm not trying to avoid you. I'm really not. I just really don't want to deal with my family and this is my first Thanksgiving with Jade so I'd like to spend it with her."

"_Okay, I can perfectly understand that on both points… should I expect you to stay in L.A. for Christmas?"_

The teenager palmed his forehead as the thought for a moment as he hadn't thought that far ahead other than knowing he would spend Christmas Eve and Day with Jade. He rounded the corner of his bed and had a seat at the end of his bed while he finally answered her with a calm tone, "I may not be there for Christmas Eve or Day, but we're out for school for two weeks. I should come up for a few days between Christmas and New Years. I want to be back before New Years."

He heard the nervousness in her voice as she answered, _"Okay… that sounds fine."_

He smiled as he asked with a friendly tone, "So, what do you and Spencer have planned for Thanksgiving? Are you going to have to get Sam a separate turkey?" He paused for a second as he realized something and asked with curious tone, "Are you even going to let her come over for Thanksgiving?"


	27. Chapter 27

Author's Note: Okay, here is that second chapter for this weekend's update… which is the longest single chapter I believe I have ever written for one of my stories. I needed some extra time to edit, so I couldn't get it out yesterday. Please make sure you read Chapter 26 since I usually don't post chapters this close together. I'm skipping Friday's update and going to get back to working on 'iWant to Wake Up' for those of you that are following that story. I hope you enjoy this chapter. It is going to be an emotional one.

Special Guest Appearance by Jennifer Connelly as Ruby West

Special Guest Appearance by Michael Ironside as Grandfather Lynn (I know he's still about fifteen years too young, but that is what suspension of disbelief is for)

* * *

><p>Chapter 27<br>West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>~5 PM, Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Freddie pulled Mrs. West's car up the driveway and the silver Mercedes-Benz into its usual parking spot in the garage. He turned off the ignition and quickly exited the vehicle to help his mother out and with her luggage. He opened the car door for her then headed around the back of the vehicle.

Mrs. Benson stepped out of the vehicle that she pleasantly enjoyed riding in from the airport and couldn't help but mentally compliment Mrs. West in her choice of vehicles. The brunette reddish tinted haired woman frowned as she glanced over to the beaten Charger sitting at the other end of the garage. She looked to her son with an almost terrifying expression and asked, "That deathtrap is your car?"

Freddie blew out a breath and rolled his eyes as he pulled the suitcase out of the trunk/boot. He walked around the end of the sedan with suitcase in hand and pulled another bag out of the back seat as he answered, "It's not a deathtrap mother. She runs perfectly fine and she's as safe as any other car. It's just cosmetic damage. I just haven't gotten it into the shop to restore it. Paying insurance, rent and saving up for college has been more important than spending money on making her pretty. I have to keep my priorities in order."

"It's a racing car," she complained as if that was all that was needed to say that he shouldn't have that kind of car.

Freddie slightly shook his head as turned to look to his mother. "She's a _muscle_ car, but I don't race her or drive crazy with her. I don't take her for illegal drag racing with Beck and Dusty."

She put on a near panic expression on her face as she asked desperately, "Why are you hanging with boys that do that?"

Freddie closed his eyes and took a slow breath and let it out. He turned complete around to face her as opened his eyes and calmly tried to explain, "No mom, they don't do that either. I was just pointing out that they have muscle cars too… actually Dusty's is a pony car, but that doesn't distract from my point. It's just a car that I drive safely. I'm not going to do something to risk myself or Jade. I was hit by a truck remember? I understand the risks of what can happen on the road."

She immediately frowned and snapped, "You should have never been hit by that truck—"

He raised his voice to cut her off, "I made my choice mom and if I had to do it over again I would do it no matter how many pieces of metal are left in me. Jesus doesn't have a problem with me doing it; why should you?"

Mrs. Benson instantly shut her mouth as he intentionally threw his mother's faith back in her face. He would usually feel a little guilty for doing such a thing, but if she was using it to justify her behavior towards him, he wasn't going to let her take a cafeteria approach to her faith of only picking what she liked.

Marissa slightly bowed her head and suggested, "Let's just go inside."

"Good idea," he answered then turned to head for the door to the kitchen.

Freddie was first through the kitchen door of the Wests' home as he struggled to get inside while he still held two pieces of his mother's luggage.

Mrs. West and Jade were standing in the kitchen ready to greet the mother and son. Jade walked over to take one of the bags out of Freddie's hand and put on the best forced smile as possible as she greeted, "Hello Mrs. Benson."

The pale actress could easily see that Freddie's mother was wearing a forced smile as well, "Jade."

The mother and girlfriend stared at each other for a few moments.

Ruby spoke up with a hesitant smile to Mrs. Benson, "I know that it may have been a short flight, but boarding and departing is a nightmare these days; I know you must be tired. Let me get you something to drink and show you to your room?"

The Benson matriarch turned her attention to Ruby and acquiescent to the request as she sat a piece of her luggage on the kitchen floor. "Thank you."

* * *

><p>Once Freddie left his mother's bags in the guest bedroom, Marissa and Ruby were left alone in the room. The brunetteredhead didn't even take time to look over the impressive guest room as she immediately asked with a concerned tone, "He said he's paying you rent? How are you charging him rent? You're supposed to be looking after my son."

Ruby rolled her eyes blew out a breath through her nose as she gathered her patience. She answered her with a calmest voice she could muster, "I'm not really taking his money. I've been putting it into a savings account. I needed to encourage his sense of independence, something you've tried to hinder all of his life."

Mrs. Benson narrowed her eyes on the raven haired beauty and deeply frowned as she stared at the other woman.

Ruby wasn't intimidated by the expression in the slightest. She really didn't intend to start a fight with the woman, especially within minutes of her arrival, but she wouldn't run away from any confrontation. "Yes I said it and it's the truth."

"I don't need you questioning my parenting skills," she answered with an offended tone.

The raven haired woman raised a corner of her mouth as she retorted, "Since Steven's not here and no one else will say anything, I'm the only one left to question your skills."

"How dare you!" she shouted with a near shrill of a voice.

Ruby laughed, "Dare me?" She shook her head slightly and wore a smirk as she came back, "You're partially responsible for him having to leave Seattle in the first place."

Marissa's eyes nearly bulged out of her eye sockets as she asked, "I made him leave? I love my son! He begged and pleaded to live with you."

Ruby responded with sarcasm dripping off of her voice, "Yes you love him so much that you let everyone around him torment him and you joined in a few times, so he had to move to another state to find some happiness. If that is what you consider love then I truly pity you and the only begging I remember was from you after you realized that he wasn't asking you to move but telling you that he was leaving."

"He couldn't have left without my permission."

Ruby smirked as she gave her a near predatorial look with her eyes. "Are you sure? Are you sure he just wouldn't have just ran away and them reported you for your abuse of him."

"I never abused my son—"

The pale woman snapped to interrupt the nurse as she took a step forward to assert her physical dominance of the situation, "Don't you dare try to defend what you did to him. I'm not some child you can bully or someone too cowardly to say anything because they don't want to get involved. I know the truth and I also know this: if Taylor was alive, you would not have gotten away with all of what you've done to him. She would have stopped you. I know if Steven would have known the extent of what you did, Freddie wouldn't have moved back in with you after you drove him out at fifteen. None of us can change the past, but _we know now_ and we will not allow you to harm your son that way anymore."

Mrs. Benson set her jaw tight as she was not used to being spoken to in such a manner. Her brief conversation with Steven months ago was more subtle when he informed her that he knew the entire story from Spencer and that he would not tolerate anymore of her behavior towards her son. She figured that he was trying to repay some form of life-debt that he felt he might owe Freddie for saving Carly's life.

Thinking of the Colonel actually rallied her thoughts as she retorted, "As if Steven is any place to judge me about how I raised my son. Look how his son and daughter turned out and how he's abandoned them for years."

Ruby took another step to Marissa so close that their noses were nearly touching. The raven haired beauty looked her squarely in the eyes and whispered in a dark tone, "Spencer is a fine man whatever you think of his child like manner that he gets from Taylor and Carly… she has her mother's and father's strength to find her way again and don't you dare underestimate that strength and Steven? _You_ are not his judge and you should be quite careful what you say about things you know nothing about."

The nurse swallowed down nervously as she looked into the raven haired woman's eyes.

Ruby was satisfied for the moment that she put the fear of God into the woman for at least a few minutes and reminded that she was the Alpha Female of the home. She took a step back and put on a smile as she commented, "I'll let you get settled and we are going to have dinner at about six."

* * *

><p>A few minutes after six o'clock, Mrs. West was sitting at the end of the dinning room table with Jade and Freddie sitting to her left and Mrs. Benson on her right. The West matriarch and Freddie had prepared a meal with the hopes that it would be acceptable for his mother.<p>

Marissa looked at her plate of food hesitantly as she was concerned about the healthiness of the food.

Ruby suppressed a smirk from Marissa's uneasiness as it reminded her of Barry's concern when he would try new food. The Dorfmans were odd in their food choices to most people (very odd in all honesty), but she knew it was due to a combination of Barry's concern to keep carcinogens out of his children's diet and the fact that his children turned out having unique dietary needs due to being allergic to a number of things most people take for granted. Her mouth faltered as that thought immediately lead to the reason why Barry would take such strange measures: trying to do everything he could to spare his children the fate of his sister. She took a quick breath in the hopes that know one would notice and tried brush away for the time being the memory of Taylor Shay.

Mrs. Benson dipped her spoon hesitantly into the soup then brought the warm liquid to her lips. She softly slurped the soup to test the taste and the temperature as to not burn her mouth. She looked up at her son and gave him an approving smile. "This is quite good."

Ruby smiled at the compliment then replied, "It's a similar recipe that Taylor used to make for Barry when he came over after he had Faye. Freddie informed me that you preferred to avoid foods with a lot of preservatives and other artificial ingredients, so I thought you might enjoy it."

The nurse took another spoonful into her mouth then continued, "That's very thoughtful of you. I know others will just eat anything without any concerned for one's health."

"Yes well… we all have our choices in what we eat and we have to live with the consequences."

The group slipped into a silent dinner for a few minutes after Ruby's last comment as it appeared none of them knew of a safe topic to talk about with Mrs. Benson's presence. She was the one that finally broke the silence as she looked up from her salad side dish and commented curiously, "How are you doing Jade?"

The pale actress looked up from her meal a little surprised that Mrs. Benson would engage in conversation with her since all the other times she had avoided speaking with her for reasons she still was not sure about other than maybe not further alienating Freddie when they were packing his stuff to move to Los Angeles. She however gathered her thoughts quickly and answered with a hopeful and pleasant voice she used the very first time she met Mrs. Lee before the restaurant owner wanted to rewrite her play, "I'm doing well ma'am. I really don't have any complaints. School's going well; I'm working on another screenplay and hoping that we may film something during our Christmas break."

Marissa put on a big grin, but it was obviously a forced smile from the other three's perspective. "Yes, your… film, play… it was… interesting, you as Snow White. It wasn't exactly how I remember it."

Jade kept on her force smile and answered diplomatically, "Yes, people are familiar with the Dingo version of the story, but I wanted it to be thought provoking and present a more original Brother's Grimm feel to the story… with my own take on it of course."

"Yes, but… aren't you concern about children seeing your film? You had a lot of blood in it."

The dark haired teenager slightly bowed her head and answered softly, "Actually that was just red syrup… the film was not intended for children, but teenagers and adults, but even then it's not really any higher than a PG rating. Children don't usually go to a high school's personal web-page and if they see it on SplashFace, we put warnings at the start of the film that it isn't a children's fairy tale version."

Marissa slightly frowned as she countered, "But you have children in it."

Jade bit her tongue for a moment to prevent herself from saying anything sarcastic. She took a calm breath then answered, "They were in it for aesthetic purposes… the 'seven dwarfs' are expected in some form or fashion and I didn't want to hirer professional actors. I couldn't exactly afford to hirer anyone from Shortywood Productions. The children were not any inappropriate scenes or saw us film them. I'm not sick."

Mrs. Benson slightly frowned, but apparently accepted the explanation for the moment.

Jade's smile finally faltered as the way Mrs. Benson was getting to her. She was a fine actress, but her patience had limits and the woman had already reached them with her insinuation about her being insensitive about exposing preschoolers to things they shouldn't see. Why did everyone see her as some dark monster?

The table fell quiet again with the participants focusing on their individual meals with an occasional glance shared between Freddie and Jade to see how the other was holding up. They were barely fifteen minutes into the meal and Freddie could see that his girlfriend was already running out of patience, but was doing and admiral job of keeping her composer. Her having to do such a thing instead of his mother being more polite irritated him as his mother was making the same stereotypical judgments about his girlfriend as everyone else.

As the meal progressed, Mrs. Benson kept glancing at Jade until the pale singer had enough and asked with a stressed voice, "Yes Mrs. Benson?"

The brunette jumped at the question and asked with a hint of disapproval in her voice, "Are you planning to wear your jewelry during Thanksgiving?"

A blank expression appeared on Jade's face as she was somewhat astonished that her facial jewelry was apparently troubling the nurse. She spared her mother a quick glance, but she looked just as surprised that the Benson matriarch would so openly bring up the subject.

Jade cautiously answered, "Yes I do."

Mrs. Benson frowned again and commented, "I'm still not comfortable with that jewelry in your face."

Jade cleared her throat and put on a forced smile and narrow gaze. After months of time with the dark haired teenager, Freddie could hear the faint underlining annoyance in her voice regardless of how pleasant her voice sounded as she responded, "Well neither is my father. I guess that is something you can agree on when you see him tomorrow. A point of common ground?" She finished with slight rising of her nose like a bunny would sniff a carrot that went with her sarcastic smile.

"I think your father would just be concerned with your appearance," Mrs. Benson replied with an equally pleasant voice as the two females realized they were going to play a game. The visiting Benson looked to her son and asked, "What do you think Freddie?"

Freddie paused for a moment at the question while Jade looked to him just as curious at what kind of answer he could give to his mother. He gave his girlfriend a small smile as he answered calmly, "Ah… actually… I've never given it much thought." He looked to his mother as he finished, "I just see it as a part of Jade, like her colored hair extensions and tattoo. It's just a part of her that makes her… well her."

Marissa blinked and took in a sharp breath then asked in shock, "You have a tattoo?"

Jade grinned as she rolled up her sleeve and held up her right arm to show the star tattooed on her inner forearm. She smiled proud of the ink marking on her arm.

Mrs. Benson slightly frowned not approving of the marking while Mrs. West took another spoonful of her meal into her mouth in the hopes of not having to comment at all. She didn't see the point of another discussion with her daughter on the matter of inking and facial piercings and she certainly didn't want to appear as if she was taking Marissa's side even if she didn't approve of them as well. Ruby had no doubt that her reasons for not approving of the piercings and tattoo were vastly different reasons than Marissa's reasons for disapproval. She just hoped the visiting nurse wouldn't push the issue and suggested something unseemly about her daughter simply for choosing to pierce her body in those places because she didn't want to have to embarrass Marissa in front of her son.

Fortunately the brunette looked back to her meal and started again, but Ruby could tell from Mrs. Benson's eyes that in her mind she put a mark in the column of not approving of Jade. She took another mouthful of food to stop herself from saying anything as a good piece of her wanted to assert her authority of being the Alpha Female in the room.

Marissa started again as she commented to her son, "Freddie, I didn't notice your bedroom or Jade's room downstairs."

Freddie took a sip from the rim of his glass then sat it down on the table to answer, "Well, our rooms are on the second floor. Mine is at the end of the hallway and Jade's his just the next door down."

"That close?" she asked with a concerned tone. Before any one of them could respond, she looked to Mrs. West. "Aren't you concerned that their rooms are so close and you can't tell what is going on from your room? Like when they go to bed?"

Ruby slightly turned her head as she put on a perplexed expression. "Freddie chose his room from what we had available. Why would I be concerned with when they go to bed? They're old enough to realize when they need to go to bed. Are you talking about whether Jade has a curfew?"

"No, I'm talking about the fact that they are teenagers and he has boy chemistry. Carly thoroughly messed up his boy chemistry."

Mrs. West's brow furled with a bit of confusion as she asked, "Boy chemistry?"

Freddie frowned as he narrowed his gaze upon his mother while Jade looked just as confused as her mother but partially realized that his mother was insulting him. She briefly wondered if Mrs. Benson believed that Freddie and Carly had sex during their brief relationship if she thought the brunette had messed up Freddie's 'boy chemistry'.

Marissa stressed, "_Yes boy chemistry._ You need to know when they go to bed so that they are in separate beds."

Ruby frowned, but she answered with a patient voice, "Mrs. Benson, I think this conversation is going into a deeply personal area where it comes to my daughter and you should perhaps change the subject."

Marissa demanded, "Change the subject? Why wouldn't you be concerned where your daughter is sleeping?" She looked to Freddie and hesitantly asked as she felt the worry slip into her voice, "Are you two sharing a bed? Have you two… have you two had—sex?" The word sex was almost foreign to the woman's mouth if not for the fact that at one point in her life she had to engage in the act to conceive Freddie and at least think about it when it came to where Freddie's feelings would eventually lead with Carly if the brunette ever reciprocated his feelings.

Freddie blinked as he was caught off with the question with his annoyance slipping to surprise. Jade put on an even expression, but even her eyes opened a little wider.

Ruby softly began with a worried tone, "Mrs. Benson—"

The Benson Matriarch took in a sharp breath at seeing her son's stun reaction then spoke with an accusatory tone, "You have haven't you?"

Freddie looked to Jade with a look that suggested he was asking her permission to answer his mother truthfully.

Jade took a deep breath and looked Mrs. Benson straight in the eyes as she answered with a reasonably calm voice, "Yes we've made love bef—"

"Actually three times to be exact…" He trailed off when he saw the Jade raise an eyebrow and her eyes telling him if he was seriously going to be specific now of all times with his mother present.

He shrugged his shoulders to show he had no shame in what he had spoken.

Marissa went eyes wide and her mouth dropped open with the shock to her system. She stood up and threw her napkin on the table. "Pack your things right now! We are going home!"

The pale actress's eyes shot open and her hand immediately latched on top of Freddie's hand resting next to her hand.

Freddie snorted before he could catch himself and a grin formed on his face. His voice was laced with sarcasm and disbelief, "Really mom? Threatening to take me back to Seattle?"

Mrs. West slightly frowned as she was caught off guard at how calm if not a bit of a smartass Freddie had reacted to the threat.

Mrs. Benson noticed her son's flippant response to her which infuriated her more. "This isn't a threat. Pack your things; we are leaving on the next available flight."

Freddie set his jaw tight for a moment then whispered, "You haven't thought I wouldn't plan for the possibility of you pulling this on me if you found out or come up with some other reason to have me go back?"

Mrs. Benson blinked as she looked to her son with a confused expression for a few seconds then squared her shoulders and looked at him with a confident expression as she realized that she felt she finally had the momentum shifted in her favors after months. "I don't care what you've thought of. You are not living in sin with this girl for one more minute."

Freddie's sarcastic demeanor fell away to a cold stare and even colder voice, "No mother, you're not going to take me back because if you actually try, this is what's going to happen: You'll reenroll me into Ridgeway, where I will do _zero_ work. I will sit in my classes and do _nothing_ until my eighteenth birthday. No class work, no homework, _nothing_ and I will get a big fat zero in all my classes… heck even screw up the school's test scores for the state when I bubble in C for every answer and that assumes I pick up the pencil at all."

He took a slow breath then bowed his head down slightly and let out a disgusted snort as he paused for a moment. He looked back up to his mother blank expression. "On my eighteenth birthday I'm out of Ridgeway and Seattle and right back here to reenroll at Hollywood Arts. I'll take the exams for this semester classes, pass them and get back credit for them. The second semester starts on February third and I'll be back here by the fifth and I can catch up two days of classes pretty easy. Finally… after I leave Seattle, I will completely cut you and the rest of the Bensons out of my life for good. I will do everything in my power to never have to see you again because I'll have my final confirmation that you don't love me."

A hint of desperation slipped into her voice as she responded, "You will do no such thing."

Freddie shook his head. "You can't bully me or guilt trip me anymore… I won't let Carly do that to me, so I'm not going to let you do it… besides, Carly was far better at it than you."

"You are supposed to honor your mother!"

Freddie lifted his head up to make sure that she could look him directly in the eyes as he answered with his voice filled with irritation, "I think He waives that Commandment when said parent abuses his or her child."

"I never abused you!"

Freddie raised an eyebrow and asked with a sarcastic tone, "The chip?"

He didn't wait for his mother to mount any sort of defense as he pressed on, "I keep it on my dresser by the way. How about your repeated humiliations of me in public? Trying to protect me from imaginary threats while you stood by and let Sam use me for a physical and emotional punching bag? You couldn't have been that blind to know she was doing it to me. Standing by and let everyone hurt me and you joined in at times? Oh save it mother. I think you genuinely love me the best way you know how… I certainly _hope_ you love me, but you stink at it and I can't ignore the consequences of your good intentions… the results of your good intentions are horrible and I can't ignore them anymore just because you're my mother."

Marissa was practically fuming at this point then turned and pointed her finger at Jade. "This is your fault. Seducing my son—"

Freddie spoke up, "Actually _I_ made the first move that night and I may have been attracted to her before she was to me…"

His mother frowned deeper at that revelation.

"Yes _I_ initiated it and she said yes and I don't regret it and before you try to shame me, I will have this discussion with Almighty on Judgment Day." The teenager shook his head. "You're not going to win this mom. The best you can do is separate us for two months and interfere with my plans then it's over. I will completely wash my hands of you because I will not let you keep me in Hell."

"You wouldn't!"

Freddie took a deep breath and looked his mother straight in the eyes. He answered with a calming voice, "For someone that has continued to put her needs and wants over the wellbeing of her child, I'd still have to be a little crazy to keep you in my life. I'm tired of just being hurt by people. If you want to hurt me then you're going to have to realize that there is a price for your behavior."

Mother and child stared at one another for a few moments until Marissa snapped, "We are leaving right now!"

Freddie stared into his mother's eyes and held his place in his seat and turned his hand over to hold Jade's hand that was still clutching to it. "No."

Ruby took a deep breath as she looked down at the other end of the table as she felt too disgusted to even dignify Marissa by looking her in the eyes. "You are no longer welcome in my home Marissa. Pack your things and I will drive you to the airport."

Marissa snapped her head and looked to Mrs. West. She answered with a high pitched tone, "I'm not leaving without my son."

Ruby looked up and stared Marissa right in the eyes. She answered in a cold tone, "You're not leaving with him."

The teenagers looked back and forth between the older women as they continued to stare at one another.

The raven haired woman maintained eye contact with the nurse as she asked, "Would you two please excuse us for a moment?"

Freddie glanced to Jade and the look in her eyes told him that he should listen to her mother's advice. He gave a slight bow of his head towards his pale girlfriend then the pair stood up.

Marissa's face fell as her son turned his back on her and walked with Jade towards the kitchen then around the corner for the stairs.

Ruby whispered without any remorse in her voice, "Sit down Marissa."

"I prefer to—"

"I said sit down!" the pale woman snapped as the last of her patience was running thin with the nurse.

Mrs. Benson retook her seat and cautiously looked to advertising VP.

A piece of Ruby revealed in the fact that she could still dominate any situation through guile, cunning and sometimes outright force of personality. She suppress that feeling and continued, "You gave me guardianship over him while he was here remember? It's Thanksgiving and his birthday is February fourth; do you know how easy it would be to drag out any attempt to revoke the guardianship out until _after_ he's eighteen? Especially an out-of-state custody battle? This is L.A. and I know a lot of good lawyers, including the ones that specialize in child custody… I needed their services one time. They would have a field day in showing how unfit you are as a parent. Hell, you may end up behind bars for what you did to him or just locked up in a psychiatric ward… you insane woman."

Mrs. Benson was fuming at being spoken to in such a way and challenged about her parenting skills. "Your daughter is a whore that corrupte—" Marissa didn't get to finish her statement as Ruby slapped her across the face.

The brunette with reddish tint to her hair cupped her cheek as she was shocked from being struck.

Ruby's voice was chilly as she whispered, "You will never speak about my daughter like that in my presence again. You will go to your room and you will pack your things so I can take you to the airport. If you can learn to behave yourself over the next month, you'll be welcome to come back during Christmas. Until then, you are not welcome here."

* * *

><p>Freddie blew out a tired breath as he stood in the driveway and watched as the Mercedes-Benz pulled out of the driveway then head down the road. Jade stood beside him with a worried expression on her face. She held on to his right hand, but he wasn't squeezing back or really giving her any signal that he was acknowledging her.<p>

She swallowed her apprehension down and whispered, "I'm sorry."

Freddie stood stoically still looking out onto the empty space on the driveway and the road. After a few more moments he turned and headed back inside allowing his hand to slip from her hand.

The pale actress took in a soft breath and covered her mouth with her hand as she felt the rare sensation of stinging behind her eyes.

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Thursday, November 24, 2011

The time was a little after nine in the morning when Jade slowly walked down the stairwell to meet up with Freddie and her mother so that they could head for her maternal grandparents' home (second home actually that they used to spend the winters). She wore a light purple sleeveless dress with a hint of cleavage showing and matching shade of streaks in her hair similar to the pinkish/purplish extensions she use to wear when her hair was her natural lighter color. She smiled as she saw that Freddie was waiting for her in the kitchen. He wasn't looking up the stairs, but just focusing on anything that would catch his eye in the kitchen to starve off his distractive mood since the previous night. However, being in the kitchen just furthered it since there wasn't much in the kitchen to focus his attention; it was just the kitchen after all.

He wore blue jeans, a buttoned light blue shirt and a dark blazer jacket similar to the outfit he wore to the Girls Choice Dance a few years ago. He picked something a little more formal than casual wear to meet the rest of Jade's family, but short of a suit.

"Hey," she whispered to catch his attention once she reached the bottom step.

He immediately turned and flashed his boyish smile at her. The gesture meant more to her than usual since he had completely withdrawn the rest of the night after his mother left and it warmed her heart to see him smile, especially if it was because of her.

He quickly approached offered his arm to her. She gave him a soft smile and graciously slipped her left arm into the loop his right arm made and rested her right hand on his upper arm. He kissed her softly on the cheek then whispered, "You look very lovely."

The last thing she wanted to do was blush, but a hint of flush appeared on her pale cheeks from the compliment as she answered, "Thank you."

Mrs. West cleared her throat from the threshold that separated the kitchen and the living room. She asked with an apologetic expression, "Sorry… are we ready to go?"

The teenagers glanced to one another quickly then back to Mrs. West with Jade answering, "We're ready to go."

Lynn Residence  
>Outer Los Angeles, CA<br>Thanksgiving  
>Thursday, November 24, 2011<p>

Freddie gently squeezed Jade's hand as their fingers were laced together for comfort as the couple followed Mrs. West to the front door of the impressive suburban home. It appeared to the tech producer that the Lynns had managed their money quite well during their lives if this home was their second one they spent their winters. He mentally made it a point to ask Mister Lynn for some tips before they left since he was going to have a hefty incoming coming his way for the foreseeable future. As Mrs. West reached the front door, Freddie noticed that several other vehicles were already in the driveway.

The West matriarch reached the door and quickly tapped the doorbell. A few moments later, the front door opened to reveal an elderly woman in her late seventies. She wore a warm smile as she wrapped her arms around the raven haired beauty.

Freddie couldn't hear what the elderly woman had spoken, but heard Mrs. West whisper in return, "Hi mom."

The mother and daughter pulled apart and the grandmother turned her attention to her granddaughter.

"Hi grandma," Jade greeted the Lynn matriarch with a polite smile. She looked to Freddie and patted his upper arm with her free hand then back to her grandmother and said, "Grandma, this is my boyfriend, Freddie Benson."

She gave the tech producer a tight smile, but greeted him with the same warmth as she had with her daughter and granddaughter, "Freddie."

He politely bowed his head towards her and returned, "Mrs. Lynn."

The elder Lynn accepted his greeting with a nod of her head then waved them all inside as she commented with a happy tone, "Come on inside. We're almost ready and everyone's almost here." She stood aside and allowed her daughter, granddaughter and Freddie to enter.

Mrs. West and her mother separated from the teens and headed towards the kitchen as either she needed her daughter's assistance or she was eager to speak with her daughter; Freddie wasn't sure which and he was afraid it was the latter in concern of him. He didn't have long to contemplate the possibility as the dark haired teenager pulled him past the foyer and towards the living room.

As Jade led her boyfriend further into the familiar home and into the living room, he took in the sight of the expansive living room similar to the Wests' living room and showed off rewards of years of hard work from the Lynn patriarch. While Freddie was taking in the sight of the well decorated living room and military service memorabilia, Jade glanced around and immediately noticed her cousins from her mother's brother and surprisingly from her father's side was already in the home, making it a truly Lynn and West family get together. The cousins in turn noticed the couple and immediately approached them. The leader of the group was a sandy blonde teenager girl that appeared to be around the same age as the Hollywood Arts students.

She was the first to speak as she softly placed a hand on Freddie's forearm and looked to Jade, "Oh my goodness, it is true: you are dating Freddie Benson."

Jade put on a forced grin and answered her cousin Jessica with a clearly sarcastic tone, "Hi Jessica, nice to see you too."

The blue eyed teenager slightly tilted her head to the side and grinned as she responded, "Sorry Jade. It's just a little shocking to see him and you're obviously together." She reiterated her point by pointing to the couple's joined hands.

They looked down at their laced fingers and Freddie laughed then looked back up at his girlfriend's cousin. He commented with a cheerful voice, "How about that?" The other members of the West and Lynn family joined in his laughter, but Jade wore a forced smile. He caught from the corner of his eye that she was annoyed at the near gawking of them as a couple. He gently gave her a reassuring squeeze of her hand then looked to the sandy blonde to continued, "Hi, I'm Freddie, but I see I really don't need an introduction on my part."

One of Jade's male cousins in his mid-teens laughed, "No, we know who you are."

A younger female teen with light brown hair pulled back in a pony tail popped up and asked, "Why did you leave iCarly?"

The various cousins and siblings all looked to the younger teenager with annoyed looks that she would just come out and ask him.

Freddie blew out a breath and gave a tired smile, but not an annoyed one. "The question I am always asked… I left for some deeply personal reasons that I would prefer not to discuss."

They looked to Jade, but she immediately answered with an even expression and threatening tone, "I'm not telling you."

The group of various age teenagers looked to each other disappointingly, but appeared to accept that they wouldn't get the inside scoop just because they were family. Jessica softly shook her head and replied with a laugh in her voice, "Still know how to spoil all the fun… just like last Thanksgiving when you locked me in a closet."

Before the light purple streaked hair teenager could snap back with a sarcastic reply to deflate her cousin's happy mood, they heard the sound of wood knocking on wood. They turned to look to see their grandfather Lynn sitting in the loveseat resting his hands on top of the handle of his cane as he had it standing in front of him between his knees after knocking the end of it on one of the legs of the coffee table. He lifted a hand off the handle and gently motioned towards Freddie to approach him.

Freddie threw a soft smile towards Jade then separated from her to head for the Lynn Patriarch. He had a worn face with a mattering of tiny scars and an obvious prosthetic nose. Mrs. West had informed him that her father had been injured during his army service in Korea as to not be caught off guard from her father's appearance.

He gave a slight scowl as he looked to Freddie as the young man took a seat on the couch cattycorner to him.

Freddie cleared his throat. He gave a slight nod of his head as he greeted the war veteran, "Hello Mister Lynn."

He asked in a deep voice with a hint of irritation attached to it, "Mister Benson is it?"

"Yes sir."

"So you're little Jadelyn's new boyfriend," he stated rather than asked Freddie for confirmation.

He gave a slight nod of his head as he answered, "Yes sir."

Mister Lynn looked the teenager up and down for a few moments then casually commented, "At least you're familiar with a barber."

Freddie lifted the back of his closed fist to his mouth to help suppress his laugh from the backhanded insult to Beck. He dropped his hand a moment later and commented, "You'll forgive me if I refrain from commenting on Beck."

He snapped back with nearly a trademark irritated Jade tone (which Freddie immediately made a mental connection of where his girlfriend may have obtained the ability), "Why do I need to forgive you? Are you too afraid to say what you think?"

Freddie narrowed his eyes as he wondered if he was being tested. He answered with a firm voice, "No sir, but if I'm going to say anything then I'm going to say it to him, not behind his back."

The grandfather paused for a moment as he assessed the teenager and eyed him cautiously. He quickly changed the subject with asking, "So you're living with her?"

Freddie slightly tilted his head to the side as he asked, "I'm renting a separate room from your daughter if that's what you're asking?"

His frown grew deeper as he narrowed his gaze on the original Seattle living teenager. "Splitting hairs with me boy?"

Freddie slowly shook his head and maintained his eye contact with the war veteran. "No sir, clarifying the situation. 'Living with your granddaughter' implies that we share a room, personal space… a bed and that's something we do not do… I am not bringing any shame to her if that is what you are getting at sir."

Lynn narrowed his gaze on Freddie and his mouth became a thin line.

Jade slowly walked over wearing a warm smile and a glass of ice tea in her hands she had swiped from the kitchen as she approached her grandfather. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders and gave him a half-hug. She sweetly greeted the older man, "Hi granddad."

The weathered face gentleman broke into a surprise smile. "Hello Jadelyn."

Her smile broke into a bigger one as she looked to Freddie and wrapped her arm behind his neck to rest her hand on his right shoulder. "I see you've met my boyfriend."

Mister Lynn's smile wavered as he answered, "Yes, I have… trying to figure out if he's a better man than that pretty boy you use to go out with."

Jade frowned at the insult directed towards her ex, but still friend and close to her heart. She took a sip from her ice tea to try to cover his disapproval.

Freddie attempted to defend the teenager that he still had his problems with, "No man is perfect sir."

Lynn cracked a knowing smile as he seemed to lose his focus on the teenager and turn his attention somewhere else as he spoke, "Yes, but some men are far more imperfect than other men. I wonder which one you will be." He held his gaze for a few more moments until they realized that he hadn't lost his focus, but looking off to their side with conscious effort. The couple glanced over to follow his gaze to see a couple enter through the front door: Mister West and presumably his new wife.

Freddie blinked and couldn't help but to comment before he could stop himself, "Oh my God, she looks half his age. She's probably barely older than Spencer."

"Spencer?" Grandfather Lynn commented with a curious expression as he instantly recognized the name, but neither teenager bothered confirming the identity of the name Freddie had dropped.

Jade spoke up, "If you'll excuse us grandfather."

Mister Lynn wore an even expression as he watched his granddaughter and the brown eyed teenager get up and head for his former son-in-law.

* * *

><p>Mrs. Lynn discreetly motioned with her head and shifting of her eyes that her son and her former son-in-law's sister leave the kitchen for the mother and daughter as she would be able to handle monitoring the food as she spoke with her daughter. The white haired woman softly let out a breath then spoke with a calm manner, "Sweetheart, I do not approve of you allowing some boy you barely know stay with you with Jade in the house."<p>

Ruby raised an eyebrow and slightly tilted her head to the side as she looked at her mother. "Mother, you've never approved of a lot of my choices. How is this one any different?"

She slightly frowned as even at her age, her mind was still sharp and instantly recalled all the fights she had with her daughter when she was Jade's age. "Because this choice affects Jadelyn."

"I believe I'm making the best choice for Jade and Freddie."

The elderly lady shook her head and asked, "Why should you be concerned with him? Why would you accept responsibility for him? Why would you take him into your home? This boy you barely know."

Ruby answered with an unwavering voice, "I have my reasons."

She asked the obvious question that she assumed that her daughter would understand, "And they are?"

Ruby answered with a guarded tone as she crossed her arms under her chest, "Jade cares for him and he needs my help."

"He needs your help? By moving in with you? You trust him that much? You trust him that much with Jade?"

She answered meeting her mother's questioning with a challenging voice, "Yes I do. He's a good young man, he's just… broken and he's trying to put himself back together. He needs help and Jade's helping him and I'm going to help them both the best way I can."

Mrs. Lynn blinked as she heard the underlining sadness in her daughter's voice and one part of her mind started making a connection while another part was disregarding it as too unbelievable. Mother and daughter stared at one another for a few moments until Mrs. Lynn turned and called for her son to return to look after the food finishing cooking.

* * *

><p>Jade took the lead as she met her father at the door. She put on an even expression as she greeted him, "Dad."<p>

"Jade," he replied with an equally even expression.

The father and daughter stared at one another for a few moments until Freddie cleared his throat. Roy turned his gaze to Freddie while maintaining his aloft expression, but Jade looked to him with a smile.

Freddie introduced himself and offered him his right hand, "I'm Freddie Benson sir. I'm Jade's boyfriend."

Mister West accepted the hand and gave it a tight squeeze, but was surprised when Freddie matched the squeeze and then some. Roy cracked a small smile, but not a friendly one as he released Freddie's hand. He had to open and close his hand several times as he stated, "Yes, I heard that she moved on from her actor boyfriend."

Jade frowned as she heard the disapproving tone from her father.

"Hello Jade, Freddie," the woman standing beside Mister West spoke up to greet the couple. She appeared to be a very lovely woman in her mid-thirties with blonde curly hair, blue eyes and wore a friendly smile.

Jade was going to respond with a sarcastic response, but Freddie cleared his throat after a moment of hesitation and greeted the young woman, "Mrs. West."

She maintained her cheerful disposition either oblivious to the awkward tension or ignoring it as she continued, "It's nice to meet you."

The brown eyed boy returned in a polite manner, "A pleasure ma'am."

"So… are you excited about your first Thanksgiving with Jade?"

He softly laughed in response, "Yes and I'm looking forward to seeing how the Lynn/West family celebrates Thanksgiving."

Roy looked to his daughter and with a hint of annoyance in his voice commented, "Yes, it should be pleasant, as long as we don't have a repeat of last time?"

Jade frowned as she recalled that last year her father over reacted with her locking Jessica in a closet and actually called the cops on her.

Freddie spoke up with a smirk on his face, "As long as you behave yourself sir, I don't think we'll have a problem."

The taller man blinked at hearing Freddie's comeback to his sly chiding of his daughter while Jade looked to her boyfriend with a shocked expression. Shock gave way to pride for Jade as she realized that Freddie wasn't intimidated by her father and eagerly defended her. Mister West didn't get a chance to reply as the couple's dog walked between their legs and looked up at Jade and Freddie. The small dog growled at Freddie and the teenager stared down at it just as irritated by his or her presence as it was with him.

Jade leaned down and growled at the dog which immediately scurried away deeper in the home as he/she realized who the Alpha Female was in the room.

Mister West held back any comment he may have had while his wife tried to hide her embarrassment by bowing her head. Whether it was embarrassment from the way the dog behaved or how Jade reacted was anyone's guess. It was a guess no one really had time to contemplate as a young boy, lucky if he was five years old, stepped around the newest Mrs. West. He bared a striking resemblance to Quinn, one of the preschoolers that she had interviewed in one of her Jade with Tots videos with his short brown hair and innocent smile.

"Hi Jadey," the excited boy shouted then wrapped his arms around the teenager's legs. The dark haired teenager took a sharp breath as she was caught off guard by the reaction and tried not to spill the tea still in her hand all over the boy.

Freddie raised an eyebrow and softly laughed out his question, "Jadey?"

Jade glared at her boyfriend then put on a force smile as he motioned towards the child, "My little stepbrother."

The boy let go of her legs and looked up at the pale teen for a moment then looked at Freddie. "Who are you?"

Freddie smiled down at the boy and answered, "I'm Freddie. I'm Jade's boyfriend."

"Okay," he answered then dashed off to chase after the dog with the teenagers eyes following him. "Bye Jadey," he called out as he entered the living room.

The couple then looked back to Mister West as he answered, "He has a lot of energy."

Jade retorted with a sarcastic grin on her face towards her father, "Yes… grandchi—children that age are just so rambunctious."

The taller gentleman gave a disapproving looked to her daughter as well as one from the newest Mrs. West, but before either of them could say anything, Mrs. Lynn shouted from the kitchen, "Everyone take their seats! We are ready to start serving!"

* * *

><p>The two families gathered around the large dinning room table with Mister Lynn sitting at the head of the table and Mrs. Lynn at the other end with the adult Lynns sitting on one side and the adult Wests sitting on the other side with the cousins mixing with one another in their seating. Maybe due to the fortunes of fate, Freddie sat directly across from Mister West as Jade sat to the teenager's right.<p>

Mister Lynn began to say grace and Jade suppressed a laugh as she recalled how her saying grace at Beck's last Thanksgiving brought most to his family to tears. However, she didn't mean to mock anyone's faith, but just poking a little fun at all the cliché heartwarming family get together feelings. She wouldn't dare mention it as she peaked from the corner of her eye while her head was bow that Freddie had his head bowed and held on to her left hand. She would damn herself if she ever mocked something that important to Freddie.

Once the Lynn Patriarch finished his prayer, the family dug into the food with Mister Lynn carving up the turkey and pacing pieces out to each member at the table. After a few minutes of idle chitchat among the family, Mister West turned his attention to Freddie and asked, "Mister Benson, I thought your mother would be joining us."

Freddie cleared his throat and bowed his head for a moment then answered, "Yes… but something came up at the very last minute and she couldn't make it."

"Something so important that she would miss spending Thanksgiving with her son? I would assume that you'd want to be with her if it was that important."

"It wasn't that kind of emergency that needed me. If I was needed, I would have gone."

Mister West paused as he was visually assessing Freddie then asked, "You're originally from Seattle I believe and you're not eighteen yet, so where exactly are you living?"

The tone of his question assured Freddie that Mister West knew exactly where he was staying. He wasn't sure if Mrs. West had ever informed Mister West of the living condition, but he was for certain that the man knew he was living with his ex-wife and daughter. Freddie gave a slight indication with his head towards Ruby further up the table near her father and answered, "I'm staying with Mrs. West and Jade."

West asked with a disapproving tone, "And you're living with them? You're her live in boyfriend?"

The brown eyed teenager glanced around the table and suddenly felt very uncomfortable with being the center of attention with the question. Mister West was giving him a particular disapproving expression and Freddie saw that he quickly glanced to his ex-wife. He took in a sharp breath and rally his righteous indignation with reaching into his heart for that knotted feeling of bitterness and resentment he held for all those that wronged him he had spent months trying to tuck away to fuel what was going to became a verbal fencing match. He slowly let out a breath and a smirk formed on his face, "I'm a tenant. I pay to rent a room that Mrs. West graciously offered me during the summer after I completed a summer workshop at Jade's, now our high school."

"After you started your relationship with Jade?"

The brown eyed teenager slightly tilted his head to the side as he answered, "I would be staying whether I was in a romantic relationship with your daughter or not."

Jessica nervously asked, "Why are you staying?"

Jade gave her a death glare that caused her blonde cousin to swallow nervously.

Freddie let a small smile play on his lips as he answered, "As I said, I have deeply personal reasons for leaving Seattle and I do not wish to discuss."

"Maybe you could discuss them with me?"

Ruby was about to speak up as she had enough of her ex-husband mildly interrogating Freddie, but he responded with a dismissive tone, "I don't believe so sir, since it isn't any of your business."

Mister West frowned immediately and Mister Lynn at the end of the table forced himself to wear an even expression even though he wanted to smile at Freddie's response. As much as he was enjoying Freddie successfully dueling with his former son-in-law, he didn't want it to get out of hand during the meal, so he spoke towards his granddaughter, "I saw your film Jadelyn."

One of her cousins spoke up, a dark haired teenager slightly older than them, Aaron if Freddie recalled his name correctly, "It was creepy."

Jessica joined in with her commentary, "It was a dark."

Jade stopped with lifting her fork to her mouth as she darted her eyes at her cousins sitting on the other side of the table. She slightly frowned as she sat the utensil down on her plate as the first comment that her cousins would make was a negative criticism.

Mister West finished chewing a piece of his turkey then gracefully sat his fork on his plate to comment, "I question the appropriateness of the film."

Freddie stopped midway of a spoonful of potatoes to his mouth to counter with his own question, "In relation to what?"

"Pardon?"

Freddie wore an even expression as he answered, "In relation to what? What are you using to judge whether the film is appropriate or not? Charles Dingo's version of the story or the Brothers Grimm version? What audience do you think the film was targeted? Depending on what you are using to judge, you can come to a number of different conclusions."

Mister Lynn raised the back of his thumb and scratched above his upper lip with his forefinger in an attempt to hide his smile from his enjoyment of Freddie challenging his former son-in-law. It was something that he wouldn't expect from Beck, being so relaxed the few times he had saw the young man, but this teenager from Seattle continued to surprise him.

"Is it a 'dark film'? Yes, but the Late Middle Ages were a very dark time especially with the focus of her film and not intended for younger viewers, but it is intended to be a thought provoking film. Tyranny can be defeated, but you shouldn't blindingly follow people because you risk becoming what you are trying to overcome… then they have truly beaten you." Freddie looked to Jade and shrugged a shoulder as he laughed out, "Well that's what I got from it."

"Was that her intention or are you just coming up with a moral to the story after the fact?"

Freddie chuckled for a moment then answered, "You can't form an intellectually honest opinion about a film until after you see it, so your question is well… pretty silly."

Mister West frowned from the backhanded insult.

Ruby blinked as she realized that she was watching the same dance that her ex-husband and Steven would perform whenever they were in the same room for more than ten minutes unless they were talking about politics as they were on the same side of the political spectrum (other than the current president of course at the time of their conversations). She realized that Steven must have talked about Roy to Freddie at some point, but she wasn't as upset about it as maybe she should be.

Mister Lynn stifled a laugh with the back of his hand and instead coughed.

Mister West glanced towards his former father-in-law then looked to Jade. "I see that you found someone that supports your aspirations."

She cracked a small smile as she fired back, "He supports _me_."

"I just wish it was a more realistic goal."

Freddie sat his silverware down on his plate and set his jaw tight for a moment as he stared at the taller gentleman across the table. He took a deep breath and sat up even straighter in his seat spoke in a cold whisper, but loud enough to get everyone's attention at the table, "I was warned that I would have to deal with you at some point, but…" Freddie slightly shook his head as he felt disgust rise from his stomach. "He told me not take any nonsense from you and you don't deserve as much respect as you _think_ you deserve. So Mister West, you either need to support Jade's dream of being an actress or shut your mouth."

Everyone at the table took in a sharp breath or nervous swallows (and trying not to choke on their food if any were in it). Mister Lynn was even surprised at the directness of Freddie's remarks.

Mister West frowned and asked with an annoyed whisper, "Are you always this disrespectful towards people?"

Freddie retorted with a cold voice, "No, I've just learned not to give it to the ones that don't deserve any."

"And who would give you such advice?" he asked as passed a sly glance towards Mister Lynn.

Freddie cracked a smile and replied confidently, "Colonel Steven Shay, United States Air Force… he's the one that told me not to put up with any of your mess. I was hoping I wouldn't have the need to take his advice, but unfortunately, he was right about you."

Ruby covered her mouth with a hand and let out a slow breath through her nose.

West's eyes narrowed in surprise as he looked at the teenager and his jaw set tight at the mentioning of the name.

Mister Lynn cracked a smile as he asked loud enough to catch everyone's attention, "Stevie Shay told you that?"

Freddie turned his head and raised an eyebrow at being caught off guard by the Lynn patriarch at the end of the table. He hesitantly answered, "Yes sir."

Grandfather Lynn started laughing and started tapping his cane on the floor making sure he was grabbing everyone's attention. He looked to Mister West and spoke with a smile plastered on his face, "This is the best Thanksgiving in a long time. Steven's not here and he's _still_ giving your mess right back to you." He looked to Jade and smiled at his granddaughter. "Jadelyn, you need to hang on to this one. This boy's got a spine on him."

Jade couldn't help but break into an embarrassed smile from her grandfather's comment, but couldn't disagree with the sentiment as she thought about the times Freddie stood up for her.

Mister West glanced at his ex-wife, who met his stare, then back to Freddie. He asked the teenager in a guarded tone, "And how do you know of Steven Shay?"

Freddie grinned as he held his stare at the taller man. "I've known his son and daughter for a very long time… I use to live literally right across from their apartment, my mother still does… jumping in front of a truck to save his daughter's life kind of got me on the Colonel's good side." Freddie lifted his right hand then started rotating his wrist around and wiggling his fingers. "Smushed the hand, but it healed up fine. Rehab was great… as you could probably tell from our handshake." He stuck his hand under the table and tapped the side of his left knee. "I tore up my leg pretty good though… small plate here and have a few screws there, but it's stronger than it's ever been." He looked up smiling at Mister West and finished with a bit a humor in his voice, "The whole nearly dying part wasn't fun, but it was a small price to pay to save Carly. Maybe you should judge me by that?"

Mrs. Lynn leaned over and whispered to her daughter as she tried to keep a laugh out of her voice, "Steven approves of him? That explains it all."

Ruby turned her head sharply and looked to her mother with an annoyed expression. "Not everything as I was trying to tell you."

The mother responded with a surprising warmth and approval, "You don't need any other reason for yourself."

Mister Lynn spoke up, "Okay, we've had our fun; now it's time to get back to eating."

Freddie and Mister West stared at each other across the table while at the head of the table Mister Lynn couldn't keep the grin off of his face at seeing someone stand up to who he thought was a pampas ass in thinking he always knew best.

The pair didn't stare at each other for much longer as they decided that they wanted to converse with the others at the table. Freddie chatted of course with Jade, but also her cousins that seemed to be able to get over the light air of celebrity that was hanging over him as they were fans of the show. He found them to be pleasant group that he didn't mind to get to know better and keep in contact with after Thanksgiving since they were part of Jade's family.

* * *

><p>After another twenty minutes, various members of the West and Lynn family separated into groups to speak with one another. Freddie and Jade made their way to the living room and had a seat on the couch to sip on their glasses of sweet tea and have a moment to themselves. Mrs. Lynn approached the couple with a warm smile and had a seat in the former seat that Mister Lynn had occupied earlier in the day.<p>

"Hi Jade," she greeted her granddaughter warmly.

The dark haired teenager put on a slightly forced smile as she didn't like being interrupted with her moment of piece with Freddie, "Hi grandma. So, what brings you over here?"

She laughed softly as she could see right through Jade as she could her own daughter. "I'm just going about checking on all my grandchildren while I had the chance in one place and I'm a little curious about something since you brought Freddie to celebrate with us."

"About what?" Jade asked as she slyly passed a glance towards Freddie.

Grandma Lynn cautiously asked, "If you've changed your opinion on what kind of man you want to marry when you grow up."

Freddie blinked at the question and wondered why she would ask her granddaughter such a question with him sitting right next to her.

Jade gave Freddie a passing, reassuring glance then looked back to her grandmother and confidently answered with a playful expression, "As I said before grandma, I want to marry a man like coffee. I _love_ coffee."

Mrs. Lynn blinked and asked, "I still don't understand what that means."

Freddie asked in an attempt to satisfy his own curiosity, "Yes, what does that mean? You like your coffee black with two sugars…" Freddie blinked and immediately put a worried expression on his face, "Do I have to worry about André as competition?"

Jade covered her mouth with a hand. She dropped the hand away from her mouth and answered with a bit of a laugh in her voice, "I was thinking more strong and sweet…"

Freddie nodded along and glanced down to avoid eye contact for a moment, "So… I still have to worry about André?"

She sat her glass of tea down on the coffee table and wrapped her arms around behind his neck and just over his chest to lock her hands together and rest them on his right shoulder. She leaned in and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. "You know you're cute when you're jealous?"

He softly laughed as he asked, "I thought you always found me cute?"

Mrs. Lynn kept her mouth shut at the affection shared by the teenager couple, but even she had to admit to herself that they looked cute together.

Ian came running up to the three and stopped in front of Jade with a wide smile on his face.

The dark haired teenager looked at the brown haired child and responded with a frown that caused the boy's smile to slightly falter as he didn't understand why she would frown at him.

Freddie leaned in to whisper to Jade as to not let Ian hear him, "It's not his fault that your dad isn't involved in your life as you would want. Don't take your anger and bitterness out on him… don't make Ian pay for your father's sins."

Jade gave him a sharp look as she was taken aback with his words, but he held his ground as he looked her right back in the eyes. After a few moments she blew out a soft breath from her nose. She turned to look back at her young stepbrother and in a welcoming tone that surprised even herself, she asked, "Do you want to sit with me Ian?"

Ian climbed on Jade's lap, catching the raven haired teenager off guard, but she quickly wrapped her arm around his back and rested her other hand on his knee as he sat across her lap. Her greenish/bluish eyes met Ian's hazels eyes and she took in a slow breath. She whispered softly to the child, "I never had a baby brother. I really don't know what to do."

"I never had a big sister," he giggled out.

Jade cleared her throat and suddenly felt like she was in one of her 'Jade with Tot's' videos as she asked, "So… what do you like?"

Freddie smiled as he watched the pair and saw Jade's sweetness come out that she didn't share much with the world. He quietly got up and smiled to Mrs. Lynn. "May I help you with any dishes ma'am?"

The grandmother picked up what he was trying to do and got up from her seat to lead the young man towards the kitchen.

Jade glanced up for a moment to see Freddie leave, but quickly looked back to the preschooler sitting in her lap as he went on about dinosaurs. As she looked at his brown eyes, she realized that Freddie was right. Her father may have denied her his approval of her dream and recently his attention for his new wife and annoying dog, but she wouldn't do the same to this innocent child that had become a part of her family.

* * *

><p>Freddie helped put some of the dishes near the sink and other in the dishwasher. Mrs. Lynn remained quiet as she watched the teenager and that was exactly how Freddie felt: being watched. He wasn't bothered much by it as he figured that she was just observing him to determine if he met her approval for dating her granddaughter. He did however briefly wonder if Beck had ever gone through the same scrutiny.<p>

After Freddie finished helping the grandmother, he exited the kitchen and noticed the elder Lynn still sitting at the end of the dinning room table. As he walked around the other end and approached the war veteran from his right side, Freddie asked, "Mind if I join you sir?"

"Not at all son."

Freddie took a seat at the corner end of the dinning room table with Mister Lynn remaining in his seat at the end of the table. Freddie glanced over to Mister West approaching the first Mrs. West in the kitchen to speak with her. The tech producer blew out a tired breath, "I don't think he's use to being spoken to that way."

Mister Lynn chuckled as he answered, "Only by one person and not often enough."

Freddie looked back at the grizzly old man. "I take that is the Colonel?"

Lynn nodded his head. "Steven has never put up with Roy. I really think it gets to him how Steven has never once been intimidated by him. Deep down, I think he's afraid of Steven… and a little jealous and you reminding him of that didn't get you on his good side."

Freddie snorted out in disgust. "Mister West not approving me is the least of my worries. I have plenty of people that don't like me and some that outright hate me who I know will be celebrate my death one day. He can just get in line with the rest of them."

The war veteran gave a respectful nod then asked, "There is something that I need to ask you."

"Yes sir?"

He took a soft breath through his mouth then asked, "You saved Steven and Taylor Shay's daughter? Why aren't you with her? She and Jade are only days apart in age and I know she's a lovely girl."

Freddie looked down at the floor for a moment as he gathered his thoughts in his head and his feelings in his heart. He looked up at the battle hardened soldier and answered confidently and as truthfully as possible, "I have cared… I have loved Carly Shay since I was eleven years old. I had tried and failed to show her that she should give me a chance. After I saved her life, she gave me the chance I always wanted to show her that I could be the one that would make her happy, but… the fairy tale ending didn't work out."

The brown eye teenager took a soft breath and continued, "It took my enemy to make me realize that Carly wasn't necessarily liking or loving me for me, but for what I had done for her, so I let her go because I didn't want to live a lie or pretend we had something that really wasn't there. I didn't want to take advantage of misplaced feelings. I gave her the chance to let the hero worship wear off so she could have a clear mind and heart to figure out if she still felt that way about me and want to start again… she didn't want to start again, so… it turns out it was the best decision to make in the long run. But… your granddaughter and I found one another and we just… I am so very happy with her and I have prayed that she has found some happiness with me."

The grandfather remained stoic in his expression at digesting the story from the young man. "Fairy tales are overrated son."

"But not with the morality they try to teach… that you should do right no matter the adversity."

The Lynn patriarch took a deep breath through his mouth from Freddie's words. He softly spoke, but no less with the authority that his age and wisdom granted him, "Do you love my granddaughter?"

Freddie gave him a small smile and answered softly, "I'm coming to peace with my past so I can get there, but I have never mislead her with my feelings and told her that and she hasn't with me because I know she's still coming to terms with breaking up with Beck… I know that she loved him… probably a piece of her hear will always love him like there is a piece that will love Carly."

"An uncertain man, but an honest man… a rare breed these days."

Freddie cracked a smile as he retorted, "I'd rather be damned for who I am sir than for whom I'm not…"

Mister Lynn raised an eyebrow as he studied the teenager trying to figure out what he meant by the statement.

Freddie cleared his throat then continued in the hopes of alleviating the grandfather's confusion, "Then let me be truly honest with you: several months ago I had my _entire_ world crash down on my head… people who I thought were my dearest friends turned out to be my enemies and in my darkest hour it was your granddaughter that I had really only known for three weeks standing by my side… I had a friend unknowingly describe the situation during our Halloween dance as a joke on our costumes when I was dressed as a vampire and Jade as an angel: She gripped me tight and raised me from Perdition. I think there is a lot of truth in that statement the more I think on it because I would not have been the same Freddie going back to Seattle, but I would be back in Hell if it weren't for her."

His story unpleasantly reminded him of another young man's story decades ago, but seemed to at least partially answer the question why his daughter would let Freddie stay with them besides Steven's apparent approval of the young man. "I wish you good luck with that Mister Benson, especially when you will have to deal with Roy at least on occasions."

Freddie shook his head then answered, "I'd prefer not to antagonize Mister West because I know Jade would like to have a better relationship with her father, but… I don't know what to do to help her. I can't step aside when he starts, but I don't know what to do that would be positive. I never met my father. He left before I was even born." Freddie snorted out a self pitying breath. "A girl with daddy issues and a guy where every male that could be a role model has failed me… what hope do I have not to turn out like Mister West for Jade?"

Mister Lynn took a hand off of his cane and reached over to softly rest the hand on Freddie's left forearm. Freddie looked down at the grandfatherly gesture than back up to meet the war veteran's confident eyes. "The fact that you realize that they are all failures and the hope that you have the wisdom not to make the same mistakes they made."

"Thank you Mister Lynn."

* * *

><p>In the kitchen, another conversation was going on in regards to Freddie and Jade. Roy grasped a hand over his other hand as they rested in front of him while he commented with a reserved voice, "I don't approve of him living with you."<p>

The raven haired woman gave him a coy smile as she asked, "Is it because he's male or because Steven approves of him?"

Ruby could see that Roy had to literally bite his tongue for a moment as his jaw squared tightly. "I'm not concerned with Steven's opinion. What I am concerned about is that you are allowing a seventeen year old boy live with our seventeen year old daughter."

The dark haired woman countered, "They do not share a room. They have separate rooms."

"Are they having sex?"

Ruby frowned as she looked to her ex-husband and answered with more steel in her voice, "I'm not sure how that's any of your business."

"She's my daughter—"

She took a step forward and whispered out harshly, "That you have taken a particular lack of interest in recently."

Roy snorted out a breath through his nose as apparently he was becoming irritated. He took a moment to calm himself then asked, "Do we have to fight over this?"

Ruby took in a slow breath then calmly released it. "I suppose not… no, they are not having sex."

"And you know this how? Our bedroom was on the first floor and I know Jade's bedroom is on the second floor. Is Mister Benson's room on the first floor or the second?"

"Both rooms are on the second floor," she admitted nearly with gritted teeth knowing how he would twist her words.

She wasn't disappointed in her prediction with his next words, "So they have plenty of opportunity to have sex behind your back."

"I believe my daughter and Freddie that they aren't having sex and if they were, I still wouldn't kick him out even though I wouldn't approve of it. She's not going to get pregnant if that is what you are concerned about."

Roy snorted out a breath through his nose. "I'm sure Taylor didn't think she would get pregnant so early either. Pregnant during her senior prom—"

Ruby raised a finger and pointed at her ex-husband. "They were married before Spencer was conceived and you damn well know it. Even you should be able to do basic arithmetic. He was born _eleven_ months after they were married." She took another step forward and looked her ex-husband in the eyes. "I don't need your approval. It's my home and I have full custody of Jade. If you have a problem with it, tough. You apparently don't have the time for her, so why should you care now?"

"I have many responsibilities and I try to manage them as best as possible. I wonder if you would be this judgmental of Steven?"

Ruby blew out a sharp breath out of her nose and shook her head as she broke eye contact. She looked back up at him, but instead of anger as he expected, it was an expression akin to pity. He wasn't entirely sure who the pity was directed. "I've judge him the same as you've judged him; we just came to two very different conclusions about him." This time, she was the one that turned and walked away from him.

* * *

><p>The afternoon was winding down and the various family members were bidding their farewells. Mister West and the second Mrs. West were at the door biding farewell to the family as Jade approached him with Freddie there for support. Neither Roy nor Jade had a chance to speak before Ian stood between them opened his arms up to Jade. The dark haired teenager looked down hesitantly for a moment as her internal conflict showed on her face about the child that had partially taken her father's attention away from her, but had gotten to know throughout the afternoon. One side won out as she adjusted her dress to kneel down and opened up her arms for the child to approach and wrap his arms around the back of her neck. "Bye Jadey."<p>

The dark haired teenager closed her eyes and let a soft smile play on her face as her nose dipped into his neck. She whispered back, "Bye Ian," then gave him a kiss on his forehead as she pulled her head away from his shoulder.

He pulled away a moment later and took his mother's hand as the blonde led him out the front door. Mister West remained where he was standing and looked to his daughter as she stood up. "Jade."

"Dad," she answered back as she met his gaze.

Roy looked down at Freddie and casually commented, "I don't approve of you."

Freddie grinned as he looked back up at the taller man. "Well sir, I guess that makes us even as I don't approve of you."

Jade put on an impassive expression as she figuratively stood aside for her boyfriend and father to have some form of the cliché father/boyfriend talk.

West tilted his head slightly and cracked a soft smile as he retorted, "If you are looking to Steven as role model, then you will be quite disappointed."

Freddie nodded along, "Perhaps… but I think an imperfect man that knows he's imperfect is a better role model than a man who thinks he is perfect."

Roy sadly shook his head. "Your attitude will not get you far in life."

The tech producer chuckled as he responded, "Well since my previous attitude trapped me in Hell and my current one with the help of your daughter pulled me out of it, I think I'm doing pretty well so far."

Mister West frowned for a moment then gave a farewell nod and turned to head out the door.

Freddie smiled and called out, "Have a happy rest of your Thanksgiving Mister West."

Jade looked to her boyfriend with a questioning look of her pierced eyebrow raised, but a playful smirk at the corner of her lips.

He shrugged his shoulders as he commented innocently, "At least I didn't kick their dog over the fence like a football."

The light purple streaked hair girl laughed out softly and wrapped her arms around him and planted a soft kiss on his lips. She pulled away a few moments later to look him straight into the eyes. "No you didn't, but I wish I did… Happy Thanksgiving Fredward."

He gave Jade a small smile in return and whispered, "Happy Thanksgiving Jadelyn."

Shay Apartment  
>Seattle, WA<br>Thursday, November 24, 2011

Spencer was sitting at the end of the kitchen table with his back to the microwave and stove with Carly and Sam were sitting on his left. The dirty blonde still had another week to her ban in being allowed in the apartment, but it was being waived only until Thanksgiving was over because having Sam spend Thanksgiving with her mother would just be cruel. However, the three were not the only ones at the table as at the other end and the right side were the Dorfmans and Granddad Shay.

The brunette had suggested that the Dorfmans come over to celebrate Thanksgiving since it was a family holiday. Connecting with her mother's side of the family during her two week exile with her mother's brother and his family had affected her more than she had originally thought in realizing her mother's absence had caused her to develop quite differently and not all for the better. She figured if she was going to become the person she wanted to be, she would need her connection with the Dorfmans as her other link to her mother besides Spencer.

Spencer was a little weary due to worrying about all the crazy food they would have to prepare, but he really couldn't argue with her and he did fear his father's reaction if he found out that he had turned the Dorfmans away at Thanksgiving. Carly knew that Sam wouldn't be thrilled with the idea, but she would just have to behave if she wanted to eat and spend the holiday with people that actually loved her.

It appeared that her granddad had not been thrilled with the idea of the Dorfmans joining them for Thanksgiving either with the look on his face that he unsuccessfully hid.

The Shay/Dorfman family was well into their meal when the doorbell rang interrupting their attempts to maintain several conversations.

"I got it," Spencer commented as his brow furled as he got up from his seat to see who was at the door.

The lanky artist quickly cut through the living room and opened to door. He called out in surprise loud enough for everyone in the apartment to hear him, "It's Mrs. Benson."

Carly snapped in surprise as she turned in her seat, "What?"

Spencer blinked as he looked to the irate woman standing on the other side of the threshold of the apartment. "Mrs. Benson, what are you doing here? I thought you were in L.A. with Freddie."

She brushed passed him to enter the apartment.

Spencer immediately put on an irritated expression and shouted, "Mrs. Benson, I thought my father made it clear the last time he was here that you couldn't just barge in whenever you wanted to."

"Oh shut up stupid!" she snapped at him then turned to face Carly as the teenager walked into the living room. Mrs. Benson pointed her finger at the brunette and demanded, "I want my Freddie home away from that whore and you're going to help me do it."

Carly blinked and her mouth dropped open as she stared at the Benson Matriarch. "Ah…"

Sam chuckled darkly as she commented before sipping her drink from her seat at the table, "I guess she found out her little Freddiepoo isn't innocent anymore."


	28. Chapter 28: A Christmas Tori

Hey everyone. I hope everyone had a nice week and weekend. I've been doing alright and I hope you enjoy this new chapter. I'm going to get another update for Friday and get back on 'iWant to Wake Up' like I was suppose to, but when you get some extra, unexpected free time and your muse demands you write, you should listen to him/her/it.

CartoonistGirl6: As pointed out by Ruby, Freddie would turn 18 before they would barely start the process and making it a mute point.

wickedmatt717: Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter and I hope you will enjoy this one as well.

Twilight Warrior 627: Thanks Twilight. I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter as well.

* * *

><p>Chapter 28: 'A Christmas Tori'<p>

Advance Acting I  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Los Angeles, CA  
>Monday, December 5, 2011<p>

The Christmas Spirit permeated through the entire school after the following week after Thanksgiving. The entire school was decorated with Christmas trimmings and Sikowitz's class was no different with various decorations around the room including the back door decorated as if it was the lid of a Christmas present. Robbie had even dressed up partially as Santa Claus and exchanged Christmas greetings with the cheerful redhead before Sikowitz's Advance Acting classes was about to start.

"Alright young lovers of learning and short pants," Sikowitz cheerfully announced as he entered his classroom and took a step onto the slightly raised platform.

Cat gleefully agreed as she took her green seat, "I do love short pants."

"Isn't that the truth," Freddie commented with a laugh as he and Jade walked behind Cat's seat and took their respective seats behind the redhead followed by Beck taking the other seat next to Jade. The longer haired teenager turned and folded his arms on top of the backrest to lay his head down and close his eyes.

Jade raised her pierced eyebrow as she snapped her head to look at her boyfriend from his comment.

Freddie raised an eyebrow and let out soft laugh, "What? Dusty's right, she does wear them _a lot_."

The dark brunette blew out a breath as she pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers.

The tech producer laughed and shook his head.

"I'm not going to calm down!" André shouted as Tori pushed open the classroom door with her back. André continued to shout while Tori's words mixed in with his, "Yes it is; this is the end of the world. You have all next semester! I don't care; I'm just going to give up music. Forget it. Forget everything."

"Ho, ho, ho and jingle bells," Robbie attempted to cheer up the songsmith by lightly patting him on the knee.

The songsmith jumped up from his seat and grabbed the two back silver legs of the chair and lifted the back side to dump Robbie into the floor.

Jade started, "I bet that jingl—" but was interrupted with Freddie immediately stood up and walked in front of her too help Robbie on to his feet. Once the curly haired teenager was back on his feet and Rex adjusted on his hand, Freddie gave him a pat on the shoulder to check to see if he was alright. Robbie gave him a quick nod then the tech producer turned to face the sitting upset musician.

Freddie took a step forward to the sitting songwriter and began, "Hey, you're obviously upset—"

"Yeah, I'm upset—" he started as he stood up and took a step into Freddie's personal space.

The tech producer cut his rant by taking a step to match the songsmith's step and the pair stared into each other's eyes for a moment: André with an angry expression and Freddie with slightly furled brow and mouth a thin line as a challenging stare.

The room suddenly became still as the class watched the friends stare at each other in the way that they all knew usually ended with trading blows, so they all were surprised that the two friends would look at each other.

Freddie gave him a cold stare as he whispered, "André, if you want to try to take your anger out on someone, _try me_… but remember… _I push back now_."

Jade quietly whispered with a look of worry on her face as she was caught off guard by the reaction of her boyfriend, "Freddie?"

Tori looked equally worried as she grabbed André's right wrist and whispered, "André?"

The songsmith looked down at the brunette and saw her concerned expression. He let out a tired breath then retook his seat even if his expression showed that he was still annoyed with whatever was bothering him.

Freddie remained where he was standing for a few moments to make sure André wouldn't lash out again then walked over to retake his seat.

Sikowitz cleared his throat (thankful that a fight didn't break out in his classroom) asked cautiously as he took step forward and crossed his arms over his chest, "André, you got a beef with Christmas?"

Cat spoke up with a grin on her face, "I love Christmas beef! Every year my brother steals a chuck roast and then rubs it—"

Jade shouted with annoyance, "Cat!"

Beck shouted as he lifted his head off of his arms, "Hey, you woke me up."

Sikowitz smirked as he commented with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, "Eww, sorry Beck; I wouldn't want to keep you awake during my class."

Beck answered as he rested his head back down on his arms, "Thanks, you're the best."

Sikowitz walked down the two steps to pick up the chair that Robbie was sitting in as the ventriloquist had took another seat on the other side of the class next to Freddie's seat, "Now before I get my teach on—YAH!" he shouted as he threw out his right leg with Cat laughing at the antic. He turned to look back at the class and asked André as he took his seat on stage and rested his chin on the top of his right fist, "Why the sour puss?"

Rex spoke up, "Yeah, why the sour puss?"

André waved him off and responded, "I don't want to talk about it."

Tori got up from her seat and walked behind the songsmith and rested her hands on his shoulders. "André wrote a Christmas song for his creative music class. And it was a really great song, but his teacher gave him—"

"Don't say it out loud!" he demanded of his friend.

She relented with raising her hands, "Okay." She slipped back in her seat beside the distraught songwriter.

"A D, I said it out loud!" he shouted in panic with his hands waving about.

"A D?" Sikowitz asked with confusion.

André answered with a mixture of disgust and confusion, "I've always gotten A's in music. How does a person go from an A to a D?"

Jade looked to her coffee and replied casually, "Happened to me in eighth grade."

Robbie's mouth dropped open as to laugh, but remained silent as he looked to Rex.

"Oh my God," Freddie whispered loud enough for Jade to hear him as he raised a hand to cover his mouth as he mind instantly flashed back five months ago knowing that he could testify to the D part of that statement and a number of other wonder attributes about that part of her intimate area.

Jade looked over her shoulder with a raised eyebrow towards her boyfriend. He couldn't help but crack a smile and raised one is his eyebrows. Their eyes met each other for a few moments until she seemed to understand what he was thinking.

Her eyes opened wide and turned away and pursed her lips as her cheeks suddenly felt warm. Freddie lifted hand and comforted her by rubbed her back between her shoulder blades. He blew out a breath and shook his head then looked André. "What does it matter what he says?

"He's my music teacher," he answered as if it was the obvious answer and there was something wrong with Freddie not seeing it.

The tech producer laughed out, "And you're a great musician and what he's saying is full of chizz. So he gives you a D? You're the one already with a record contract and going to be famous and making more money the first month after graduation than he's going to be make all year as a teacher. He'll just be remembered for how stupid he looks at giving you a D while you're making platinum albums. He'll be an interesting little footnote to laugh at."

André looked uneasy with Freddie's last statement.

Sikowitz calmly chided, "Now Freddie, that's not nice to say about a teacher."

Freddie snorted out and shook his head as he dropped his hand off Jade's back, "He's not my teacher and it's the truth. I wouldn't sit in my science class and accept Mister Haule suddenly telling me that the Earth is the center of the Solar System and the Sun revolves around us. How is this any different? It just sounds like jealousy on his part."

The balding acting teacher put on a frown as he really didn't have an argument for the teenager. He blew out a breath and let the matter drop as he got up from his seat and walked down the platform to lean his head over Beck then shouted, "Yo!"

Beck shouted in surprise and jumped in his seat.

Sikowitz took a seat on the top step of the platform and rest his cheeks in his hands and rest his elbows on his knees. He asked with a hint of playfulness in his voice, "Why Becky so sleepy?"

The actor turned in his seat and answered with a tired voice, "There is a stupid cricket in my RV so I can't sleep because it chirps _all night long_."

Jade slightly tilted her cup of coffee in her hand and asked if it was the most obvious thing to do, "So just call one of those bug murderers?"

Tori gave a partial grin as she corrected, "Ah, they're called exterminators."

Jade snapped at the brunette, "Why sugarcoat it?"

Tori's mouth slight dropped as she was slightly outraged at Jade's remark.

Freddie scooted up in his seat and wrapped an arm around Jade's shoulder and rested his left hand over her left shoulder. He offered cautiously, "Okay, Beck, you can crash in my room until we can find the cricket."

Beck turned in his seat to look at the brown eye teenager with a look shock that woke him up. Jade turned her head to look her boyfriend in the eyes and raised an eyebrow.

Freddie shrugged his right shoulder. "Hey, if I'm paying rent, I think I can let Beck crash a few days until we can find the cricket."

Jade remained silent, but gave him a slight nod.

Beck replied hesitantly, "Ah, thanks."

Freddie acknowledged him with a slight nod of his head, but with a forced smile. A piece of him felt that he was going to regret the offer of generosity to the actor, but he couldn't fight his nature.

Sinjin barged into the room with a Mark II Purple PearPad and asked, "Hey Sikowitz?"

"What is it boy?" Sikowitz lifted his head and snapped annoyed that the blonde curly haired teenager would interrupt his class.

Sinjin gave a slight nod to Ava sitting in the back row of the class then smiled as he answered Sikowitz, "I have your Hollywood Arts Secret Santa Assignment."

He jumped up from his seat and dashed through the center of the classroom and asked with a cheerful tone, "Oww… who am I buying a gift for this year?" He pulled the PearPad from the teenager's hands and immediately whined as he saw the name of his assignment, "Courtney Van Cleef? That kid's a freaky little weirdo."

Sinjin responded with a little offense in his voice, "She's my sister."

The acting teacher looked up with a frown, but puppy dog eyes as he retorted, "I know. I don't know why your parents didn't stop with you."

Ava's mouth dropped open in shock at her teacher insulting her boyfriend.

The glasses wearing teenager's mouth dropped open, but before he could respond, Sikowitz shoved him out the door and closed it. He leaned his back against the decorated door. "Can I please switch secret Santa assignments with someone?" He dashed behind Tori's seat and softly grabbed the back of her seat and her left arm. "Come on please? Tori?"

She answered with a regretful tone, "Sorry, I didn't sign up for the secret Santa thing."

André spoke up, "None of us did."

"Why not?" the acting teacher asked outraged.

Rex answered with a sarcastic tone, "Because it's stupid."

Jade asked with a shrugged the shoulder where Freddie was resting his arm, "Why should we buy gifts for random people we don't care about?"

Sikowitz frowned and cut through the center aisle of the classroom to stand back on the stage. His annoyance at the teenagers were evident in his voice as he spoke, "Alright you kids, you need big fat dose of Christmas spirit rammed into your teenage hearts. So as such as your teacher, I am requiring you to—SHHH!—participate in Secret Santa."

Everyone in the room started mumbling among themselves except Freddie who looked to the teacher with a confused expression.

He admonished them, "No adlib complaining." He started pacing in front of them. "I will text you all your secret Santa assignments. I expect you all to give very good and very creative gifts."

Jade smirked and asked with a bit of sarcasm in her voice, "And what if we don't?"

The balding teacher walked down the steps and leaned forward to look Jade right in the eyes so closely that their noses were nearly touching. He began, "Whoever gives the worst—"

Freddie grabbed Sikowitz's left shoulder and gave him a slight shove away from Jade. He slightly stumbled back and looked to Freddie with a surprised expression at him putting his hands on him. Jade turned her head slightly to look at her boyfriend with a concerned expression, which ironically made their faces just as close as Sikowitz's face was to her a moment ago. The tech producer's mouth became a thin line and his eyes gave the acting teacher a cold stare as he whispered, "Too close. Far too close."

The other students put on worried expressions at seeing Freddie actually pushing Sikowitz away. Sikowitz cleared his throat as Freddie maintained his challenging stare and started again, "Sorry… as I was saying, whoever gives the worst gift will have to join me on Christmas Eve for Christmas yodeling."

Freddie spoke up with a firm voice, "No."

"Pardon?

The brown eye teenager looked coldly to the drama teacher. "I am not participating in Secret Santa."

Sikowitz laughed trying to relieve the tension he was starting to feel from the look Freddie was directing at him, "Then I guess you'll be yodeling with me on Christmas Eve."

Freddie clenched his jaw for a moment as he gave such a harsh glare to Sikowitz it caused the drama teacher to take a step back in surprise. Freddie whispered coldly, "No, I'll be in _church_ with my mother, who is flying down from Seattle, because that is how _we_ celebrate Christmas and express _our_ Christmas spirit. You are welcome to join us for Christmas Eve service, but if you decline then it's none of your damn business how I practice my religious faith. So keep your opinions on how _I_ should celebrate Christmas to yourself especially since _you are a school teacher_."

Robbie spoke up, "Freddie, don't you think you're being a little harsh?"

Freddie snapped his head to direct his stare at Robbie causing the curly hair teenager to jump back slightly in his seat. His tone was just as cold as how he answered Sikowitz, "You wouldn't appreciate it if he started telling _you_ how to celebrate _Hanukkah_ or how about _Passover_ then threatening you for not celebrating in the way he thinks you should celebrate it."

Robbie shut his mouth quickly and swallowed nervously.

Freddie snorted out with disgust. "I thought so."

Sikowitz raised his hands and realized he just may have crossed a line with the teenager. He started in an apologetic tone, "Look Freddie, I didn't mean to offend you—"

"Well I am offended," Freddie snapped. He shook his head in disgust and continued with his outrage dripping from his voice, "What you did mean was to use your position as our teacher to impose your belief on us just because you don't like who you have to give a present to for Secret Santa then threaten to punish us because we don't want to participate. You are not bullying me into this as Briggs and Howard love to do to me." Freddie dropped his arm from Jade, got up from his seat and grabbed his book bag from beside his chair and quickly headed out of the classroom. Freddie stopped at the doorway and pulled the strap of the bag over his head and under his left arm. He looked over his shoulder to meet Sikowitz's eyes then snorted out dismissively, "And who the Hell are _you_ to judge anybody on being freaky and weird Mister 'I get visions from coconut milk and dress like a Flower Child reject'?"

He turned and finished walking out of the classroom and slamming the door behind him.

The rest of the class looked to one another shocked while Jade stared at the decorated door.

Library/Media Center  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Monday, December 5, 2011

Jade only took a moment to gather her wits and grab her own bag before setting after her boyfriend after leaving Sikowitz's class. However, Freddie was in a hurry and had disappeared around a corner before she could make it out the door. She wasn't sure which way he went, so she picked one direction in the hopes of catching up with him. She had guessed wrong and spent another fifteen minutes searching most of the school and ignoring several teachers in the hallways asking her why she was out of class while trying to locate Freddie.

She finally passed by the library and caught a glance of him sitting at one of the tables in the library. She quietly made her way through the library and took a seat beside her boyfriend as he was reading a passage out of his science book.

"Hey," she whispered and looked to him with a worried expression.

He casually responded as he turned over to the next page and continued to read, "Hi."

The dark brunette slightly bowed her head and remained quiet for a moment. She looked up and softly asked, "Are you alright?"

He lifted his gaze off the page and slightly turned his head to look at the pale actress. His mouth was a thin line and there was a weariness to his eyes as he answered, "Am I alright? Sikowitz just tried to bully me into how to celebrate Christmas for God sakes; even Briggs and Howard wouldn't pull something so blatant and Principal Franklin use to let them get by with stuff just short of murder unless they badmouthed him. And you heard what he called Courtney and said about Sinjin; I wonder what he says about _us_ behind _our_ backs. So, I'm not too thrilled right now with the man and feeling a little betrayed at the moment. I'm sorry, but you know that I don't handle that very well, so I'm not alright." Once he was finished, he turned back to his reading.

The pale actress let out a breath and palmed her forehead. She turned and braced her elbow against the table as he turned back to his reading. She lifted her head and blew out a breath then looked to her troubled boyfriend. "I'm sorry. I really don't know what to say about Sikowitz. You know how off he can be at times, but this…"

He looked up from his book waiting for her to finish her statement with a patient expression.

She rolled her eyes and blew out a breath, "Oh forget it. I don't have a clue how to explain it."

Freddie slightly shook his head and focused back on his reading to keep his nerves calm.

She waited a few more moments in silence then took a deep breath and slowly let it out as she asked, "Are those your real plans for Christmas Eve?"

He paused in his reading just long enough to answer, "Yes and you are more than welcome to come with us."

The dark brunette slightly frowned as she commented, "I'm not thrilled with your mother spending Christmas with us to begin with, so you really think I want to spend the evening with her in a place where she's going to try to shame me the entire time?"

He looked up at his book and sarcastically replied, "I wanted to share something very important to me with my girlfriend and for the record, I'm not exactly loving the idea of having to see your father either sometime during the break."

She frowned and her brow furled as she looked to the former Seattleite. "Well at least he's not trying to actively sabotage our relationship. Your mother is the one that called me a whore once she got back to Seattle and is trying to ring in Carly to help her get you back and I'm _not_ sorry if I doubt Carly's word that she's not going to help your mother in some way and make herself look innocent in the whole thing."

Freddie took a deep breath and swallowed down his anger as he eyed his girlfriend.

News of what his mother wanted to do and said about Jade quickly made it back to them that night after spending Thanksgiving with the Lynns. Carly's Uncle Barry was quick to inform Mrs. West what happened and Carly was just a quick to contact Freddie that night that his mother wanted her to help her figure out a way for him to move back to Seattle. She of course emphatically stated that she refused to participate in any kind of scheme his mother could come up with to get him back regardless of how much she wish there was a way that he could come back and be happy in Seattle.

Mrs. West walked around in a cold furry until late Sunday about how his mother had spoken about Jade while Jade remained unconvinced about Carly's denial that she would get involved with whatever plan she could think up in the screwed up head.

Through gritted teeth he replied, "What am I suppose to say to her other than my threat to wash my hands of her if she tries to make me move back? Where do I go from there? I practically said she would be dead to me if she tried. I'm furious over what she called you and disgusted, but what exactly do I do? Tell her no, I don't want to see her at all for Christmas? She's still my mother. I still love her." He shook his head for a moment then leaned forward to palm his forehead with his elbow bracing against the table.

Jade turned her head and slightly shook it as she was actually a lost for words in what he should really say to his mother.

He lifted his head and looked into his girlfriend's greenish/bluish eyes with a tired expression, "Look, I want to at least give it another try in working things out with my mom. You want a relationship with your father despite everything, so how can you judge me for wanting the same thing with my mother?"

Jade turned in her seat and leaned back in the chair and crossed her arms under her chest. She wore a deep frown and slightly shook her head as she commented dryly, "Can't I just be a hypocrite over this?"

Freddie snorted out a laugh through his nose and tightly shut lips as he saw her near pout of a face. He quickly covered his mouth with a hand as he broke into laughter.

She looked at him for a moment as if he had lost it, but the look on his face caused her to crack a smile. Seeing a soft smile on her lovely face caused him to start laughing louder. She shut her eyes and shook her head as she fought the sudden feeling of wanting to laugh by shutting her mouth tightly shut. She lost the fight a moment later as soft laughter escaped her throat past her lips.

After the short bout of laughter, Jade opened her eyes and smiled warmly at her still chuckling boyfriend. He took a deep breath then slowly let it out as he calmed himself of his laughter while he watched his smiling girlfriend. They shared a quick glance then he scooted his chair over so the chairs were touching then slipped an arm around the small of her back and pulled her close. She rested her hands on his chest and they shared a smile. He leaned over and gave her a soft kiss on her cheek.

The brown eyed teenager rested his forehead just above her temple. He whispered, "It will all work out."

She let a soft smile play on her lips as she replied, "Being a little optimistic?"

"Or having a little faith; it is approaching Christmas after all? Besides Easter, what other time should you have a little more?"

Jade closed her eyes as her smile got bigger.

The couple remained together for the rest of the period as no student was brave enough to bother them and the school librarian, Mrs. Nicholson thought they looked too cute to separate.

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Monday, December 5, 2011

The time was just after ten that night when Freddie opened the front door to see a calm Beck with a duffle bag in one hand and his book bag on his back.

Beck gave a half smile as he greeted the tech producer, "Hey."

Freddie, attired in an old Penny-T and pajama pants, nodded his head with an equally small smile and answered, "Hey, come on in."

The actor gave a slight nod of his head and smile as he entered through the front door. The actor paused for a moment at the foyer as he looked around the home that he hadn't stepped inside for the last half year. Nothing jumped out at him about any real differences inside the home.

Freddie waited patiently as he realized what Beck was doing and allowed a little sympathy to appear on his face for the guy that had lost what Freddie had gained.

The taller teenager turned his head to look at Freddie and laughed a little too loud than necessary as he commented, "Thanks for letting me crash."

The former Seattleite shrugged a shoulder and responded as he turned to lead Beck towards the kitchen, "You're welcome."

As Freddie led him through the kitchen to head up the stares, Mrs. West was standing against the kitchen island with a drink in her hand. The teenagers paused in their stride with Freddie giving her a casual smile, but Beck put on an apprehensive expression. She wore an even expression as she looked to the pair or more accurately towards Beck.

Beck attempted to clear his throat several times then was finally able to mumble out, "Mrs. West."

She kept her even expression on her face as she answered in a monotone tone, "Beck."

He forced himself to keep his grin on his face in the face of the scrutiny Mrs. West was giving him with her eyes. She held her gaze for a few more moments on her daughter's former boyfriend to remind him who was in charge then looked to Freddie. In the same monotone voice she used for Beck, she asked, "Freddie, can I speak to you for a second?"

"Sure Mrs. West." He looked to Beck and motioned towards the stairs. "My room is at the end of the hallway past Jade's room… you use my bathroom not hers and don't go into her room."

Beck's brow furled and gave him a curious expression.

Freddie turned his head slightly and answered Beck's expression, "It's after ten and you're not going in her room. It's not up for discussion."

The actor lowered his eyes slightly and set his jaw tight for a moment to prevent making any kind of retort. He gave a quick nod to Freddie then to Mrs. West with a forced smile as he made his way to the stairs.

Once Beck was out of sight up the stairs, Mrs. West gave Freddie a disapproving look as she crossed her arms under her chest.

He blew out a soft breath and replied to her unvoiced concern, "As soon as André and I find the cricket, he's going right back to his RV."

"Why?"

He asked with a light tone to clarify her question, "Why am I offering him my room?"

"My room," she corrected with a stern voice.

He came back with a stern retort, "I pay rent, it's _my_ room."

Ruby bit her tongue as he turned her same argument she used on his mother onto her.

Freddie palmed his forehead for a moment and blew out a tired breath. "He can't stay awake in class. I don't want to him to get killed on the road driving to or from school."

The raven haired mother walked around the kitchen island and asked in a tone that suggested she couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it, "How about he actually sleeps in his house? The thing that he has his RV parked in front of?"

The brown eyed teenager shook his head. "I don't understand why he doesn't do that, but I don't know anything about his relationship with his parents. Contrary to what he says, he's not the most open person."

Ruby broke eye contact for a second then focused her stare right back at him to continue, "Did it occur to you that he's not my favorite person? He did break my daughter's heart after all… and I didn't break his legs."

The brown eyed teenager shook his head and knew he was not going to argue with the West Matriarch over that point since a part of him agreed with the sentiment. He looked up and replied with a calm voice, "I am quite well aware of how much he hurt her. I've seen the broken pieces of her heart and there's a reason why we can't say 'I love you' in that way yet. And in all honesty, he's not my favorite person either, but… I don't want him to be my enemy, I have enough of them and I don't want to be constantly mad and annoyed at him, because deep down, I don't think he's a bad guy. One that screws up a lot? Yeah, but not a bad guy. I'm trying to get rid of those feelings. I've been carrying them for far too long and I don't need to add to them with him unless I have to. If he and Jade are getting along fine, we can't we two?"

She remained silent for a few moments then answered with a chilly voice, "It's harder to forgive people that hurt your children."

Freddie smirked as he retorted, "I didn't say anything about forgiveness."

"He's out as soon as you catch the cricket?"

He gave a quick nod with his answer, "Yes and he's only coming by ten or later to crash."

The West Matriarch nodded her head then replied, "If I catch him in her bathroom or room, I'm throwing him out and he can just deal with his parents."

"I don't care. He's accepts the kindness or he slaps my hand away. It's up to him to behave."

She motioned her head up the stairs and commented with a hint of a smile on her face, "Well, maybe you should go ahead up and make sure he doesn't do either."

Freddie cracked a smile then turned to head up the stairs. "'Night Mrs. West."

Mrs. West's smile grew slightly bigger as she called out, "Goodnight Freddie."

Freddie's clock digitally displayed 11:12 PM in bright red on his nightstand as he stared up at the ceiling.

Beck stared up at the ceiling as well as he lay on the floor in his sleeping bag on the right side of Freddie's bed by the window. He commented dryly, "This is weird."

Freddie cracked a smile as his eyes looked through the barely lit of the room at the ceiling and answered flippantly, "I'm not exactly jumping up and down about you staying in my room either."

The actor rolled his eyes, "Then why did you offer?"

The tech producer took a short breath then answered, "Because I like to think I'm a nice guy and you needed help. Besides… things are getting a little rocky between us and this seems like a way to take a step back from everything."

Beck took a breath knowing exactly what Freddie was alluding to about why they were having problems again. He shook his head against the pillow and just asked, "Are we actually friends? Or are we just friends of friends? We're just in the same social circle and we just use friend as shorthand to describe us, but it's not really accurate?"

Freddie laughed out softly, "That's probably the deepest I've ever heard speak."

The tech producer could see in his mind's eye the good looking actor rolling his eye as he responded, "Real funny."

Freddie laughed as he retorted, "All good humor is based on a kernel of truth. That's something I learn from doing iCarly."

The pair remained silent as they stared at the ceiling.

The former Seattleite took several soft breaths as he gathered his thoughts. "I'm your ex-girlfriend's boyfriend…who is also living under the same roof with her… as much as it would be nice to ignore that, that's a fact we can't escape. It brings a certain complication to whatever friendship we try. It'd be entirely different if say everything happened with Cat instead or with Tori, but it didn't and we're here… living with the consequences of our choices. We could act childish about it or try to take a mature attitude about it."

Beck snorted out a little annoyed, "Mature? You're the one that keeps busting me for every little thing."

Freddie rolled his eyes then retorted, "They aren't little things and only one of those things was directly about me being Jade's boyfriend. The rest is just how you treat people. You're the one that tried to treat Jade like a child in front of me the day you got back from Yerba. You're the one that went behind my back to talk to my girlfriend about my relationship with her while I was out of town. You're the one that acted like a child when Trina goofed in trying to pursue you."

He took a deep breath and finished, "Unlike everyone else, I just don't let you get away escaping your reasonability and I don't think you've learned a thing when it's come to your mistakes with Jade. You acted the same way to Trina and I wasn't going to just let that slide. Jade's my girlfriend and Trina is my friend. If you don't like that I call you out on it while everyone else is in love with your good looks and that's reason enough for them to not say anything then I'm _not_ sorry you have a problem with it."

Beck remained silent for a few moments that felt as if they stretched into minutes. He asked with an even tone, "Did that make you feel better?"

Freddie cracked a smile and answered with a relieved tone, "It's not about feeling better. It's just letting you know that I care about my friends and I'm not going to keep my mouth shut about it. I've learned that if I'm going to keep my friends I have to be honest with them."

The longer haired teenager asked with a somewhat surprised tone, "So you consider us friends?"

"Yeah we are… letting you stay here isn't entirely out of the goodness of my heart… well I have to get some sleep too, so 'night Beck."

Beck remained silent and stared at the ceiling for he didn't know how long as a number of thoughts went through his mind until he finally let his exhaustion catch up with him.

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Cat cheerfully walked down the steps of the stairwell of the centerline hallway as she held a tray of meat and offering it to the passing students. She asked a pair of girls walking up the stairs she met halfway down, "Christmas beef? My brother made it." The teenagers grabbed a few then continued on their way and a curly blonde girl replied, "Yum."

She laughed and waved as they passed, "Merry Christmas."

She finished walking down the stairs and offered the plate to two more students, "Hi, Christmas beef? My brother made it."

The male and female quickly looked at the tray and each took one of the decorative pieces of meat.

"Yah, have a beefy Christmas," the red velvet hair teenager wished the passing students. She went on to another group of students congregating around the other side of the end of the staircase towards the entrance of the school.

As Jade and Freddie passed through the door with the addition of Freddie caring a red gift bag in his left hand, the dark brunette complained, "I can't believe Sikowitz still gave me Tori even after I walked out."

Freddie gave her a small smile. "You don't have to get her a present if you don't want to. He's not going to take you yodeling. I'll make sure of that," he attempted to reassure his girlfriend. "But…"

She stopped just in front of the stairwell and turned on her heels to look her boyfriend straight in the eyes. He turned his head slightly and cracked a small smile in response to her scrutiny. He answered with a false sense of innocence, "What?"

She cocked her head to the side and pushed her tongue against the inside of her bottom lip. "You really think I should give Tori a present?"

His soft smile turned into a big grin and playfully asked, "Why not? She's your friend and it's Christmas."

She straightened her posture and gave him an expression asking if he was serious.

He softly chuckled, "Lie to yourself, but you don't full me for a second. You have no more reasons or excuses to dislike her. In regards to her, the past really is the past. Her being all nice and how she reacts in the complete opposite way that you expect doesn't fly either or you couldn't stand me, least long _be_ with me. In all honesty, at some point it's just stubbornness on your part of not letting go of the past, so why not put an end to it? Christmas sounds like perfect time to do it."

Jade blew out a soft breath through her nose, but before she could answer him, Dusty caught up with the couple and patted Freddie on the shoulder to catch his attention. He wore a grin on his face as he rested his hand on the tech producer's shoulder. "Hey, I heard about your little confrontation with Sikowitz from Cohen. Something about telling you, you couldn't go to church on Christmas Eve? I wanted to hear it from your side. Her telling was kind of… colored."

Jade blew out an annoyed breath as she answered for her boyfriend as Dusty dropped his hand away from Freddie's shoulder, "Yeah, he wanted us to participate in Secret Santa and threatened to make us go Christmas yodeling with him if we gave the worst Christmas present."

Dusty slightly bowed and gave the green streaked hair teenager a confused expression. "Cohen explained that to me." He shook his head with a corner of his mouth. "I'm still trying to get over the fact that he tried to force Christianity on all of you… and especially on Shapiro? He does realize that is a big no, no for the sake of his _job_ and to the Almighty?" He glanced between the couple and genuinely asked, "Right? He does realize that? Is he trying to piss off God with that stunt?"

Jade shook her head and Freddie shrugged his shoulders indicating that they weren't really sure.

Dusty snorted out with a smirk, "I would have told him where he could have shoved it."

The dark brunette cracked a proud smile as she responded, "Freddie basically did."

The leaner teenager softly tapped him on the side of the arm with his right fist. "Good for you. Screwing with someone's religion is _never_ a wise thing to do. There are plenty of people that are willing to kill over it, now matter what faith they follow and you never know which people they are."

Freddie was forced to acknowledge that fact with a slight nod of his head.

"Cohen was pretty upset, so let me get the story straight from you two: Sikowitz really said that Van Cleef's parents should of stopped with him after calling his sister a 'freaky little weirdo'?"

"Yep," Freddie answered with a disbelieving tone and nod of his head.

He let off a soft chuckle then commented, "Wow… yeah, I can understand why Cohen would get upset with him. What a jackass. I'm glad I didn't take anymore of his classes after the intro acting classes." The webmaster wore an even expression and spoke with a hint of threat in his voice as he finished, "Yeah, he said that about my sister, we would have some serious problems between us real quickly."

The couple nodded along as neither doubt his word for their own individual reasons: Jade with his dealings with Nevel and Freddie with his observations of Dusty's protectiveness of Cat.

Speaking of Cat… the red velvet haired teenager approached the trio and happily greeted them, "Hey everyone, hey Soapy."

Her ex-boyfriend looked up and down at the shorter girl with the pink, blue, green and blue striped dress with a playful smile on his face. "Well don't you look absolutely adorable this morning Sweetheart?"

She giggled and looked down at herself as her cheeks partially reddened from the compliment. She held up the tray and asked, "Christmas beef?"

The lean teenager glanced at the couple the back to Cat to happily answer, "Why not?" He picked up one of the sticks with a piece of beef on the end of it and started nibbling on a piece.

Freddie lifted his gift bag and began, "Just the girl I wanted to see. I have your Christmas present."

If it was possible, the smile she was already wearing giving out Christmas beef got bigger. "Are you my Secret Santa? I thought you weren't going to do it?"

The brown eyed teenager let out a soft laugh then responded, "No, I'm not your Secret Santa, but I'm still going to give all my friends Christmas presents… and a Hanukkah present for Robbie."

The red velvet haired teenager let out a high pitched laugh then shoved the tray into Dusty's hands, which he eagerly accepted with on hand while holding his food in the other hand, and took Freddie's red gift bag. She opened it up and made another high pitch shriek of happiness at seeing what was inside.

Freddie laughed, "I guess you like it."

She reached in and pulled out a small stuffed unicorn with a custom decorated PearPhone case with a unicorn and rainbow on the back tied around the stuffed animal's neck. "Oh my God Freddie!" she laughed then wrapped him in a hug. He returned the embrace and whispered into her ear, "You're welcome. Merry Christmas Cat."

She pulled away and examined her white furred unicorn and matching PearPhone case with the same childlike wonder as a child on Christmas Day.

André approached the quartet and Cat immediately turned to the songsmith when she noticed him from the corner of her eye. "Hey André! Christmas beef?" she asked and motioned with a nod of her head to the plate still in Dusty's hands.

"Yeah sure," he initially answered as he picked up a stick off the tray, but then stopped. "Wait who made it?"

She answered happily, "My brother."

He sat the beef back on the plate and retorted, "Mm, mm, no thanks."

Her face fell and shouted with a heartbroken tone as she rushed to catch him before he walked off, "Why not?"

He patiently explained while his left hand rubbed over his stomach, "Because last month I ate his Thanksgiving sausage and I'm still a mess."

The redhead looked away with a slightly confused, yet understanding expression.

"Your brother made this?" Dusty asked as he was already halfway through eating the beef.

"Ahun," she innocently voiced.

He paused for a moment, looked to Cat then looked at the beef then looked back to Cat. He shrugged a shoulder then continued to eat on the meat.

André blinked and looked at him with mild shock.

After Dusty finished chewing that morsel, he answered André's expression, "I have a _very_ strong constitution. I'll be alright."

The songwriter nodded his head and put on an awkward expression.

"Ho, ho to the ho," Tori laughed as she approached the group in an almost dance like manner.

The songsmith asked, "What's up?"

"Ho?" the redhead blew out then put on an innocent expression while hugging her unicorn.

"Hey Tori," Freddie returned the greeting while Jade put on a forced smile.

"Hey," she returned the greeting with a bright smile then looked to André. "So Mister Music Man," she began then lifted her right hand to wave her fingertips over his eyes, "close your eyes and get for the best Secret Santa—"

"Calling Cat Valentine," the brunette was interrupted by the sound of Robbie's voice behind Cat. The pair looked past Cat as she, Freddie, Jade and Dusty turned around to see Robbie speaking into a bullhorn and repeating, "Calling Cat Valentine."

"I'm Cat Valentine; who's calling?" she excitedly answered and giggled.

The curly haired teenager had a big grin on his face as he answered, "Your Secret Santa."

"Oh my God, YAY!" she shouted and threw her hands up in the air and held on to her unicorn stuffed animal.

Robbie motioned to his right side and behind to a man pushing a pink machine to just behind Robbie. "And your Christmas present is… your very own cotton candy machine!"

Cat screamed with joy as she held on to the end of her dress and shook with her free hand.

Robbie continued, "That's right. This man, Larry Stein will follow you all week and give you all the cotton candy you want."

"Oh my God Robbie!" She rushed to him and wrapped an arm over his left shoulder and around his waist. "Thank you!" She kissed him on his right cheek which brought a look of surprise on his face. "This is the best Christmas present ever!"

Freddie glanced to the Southern teenager to see how his friend was reacting to Cat's reaction and affection to Robbie. He was mildly surprise to see him grinning at the sight and apparently happy for the redhead.

Cat pulled away from Robbie then pointed to Larry. "Look everyone. Robbie got me a cotton candy machine with a man!" She tugged on his left pink sleeve and said, "Come on Larry. Let's get to class." She turned and dashed up the stairs with Larry grabbing his machine and reluctantly following her.

André pointed up the stairs and spoke to the quartet, "That is a legit secret Santa gift."

Tori awkwardly replied, "Yeah… it is… bye." Tori turned and walked away.

Freddie smile left his face and instantly replaced with concern at the brunette walking down the hall scratching the back of her head in frustration. He was about to take off after her, but Dusty hearty laugh distracted him while the Southern teenager patted Robbie on the shoulder with his free hand as he finished his piece of meat and held the plate with the other. "Wow, you may be a little freak, but man, you have _great_ tastes in getting her a gift."

Robbie wore a crooked smile as he replied, "Yeah… thanks… I think."

The slightly taller teenager laughed, "You're welcome. I have to give you props man; that was a great gift." He looked to the tray in his hand and laughed, "Looks like I get the rest of the beef."

The rest looked to him with a mixture of confusion and disbelief.

"Hey, at least no one else will get sick? Right?" he smiled and shrugged a shoulder.

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Freddie got through another night with Beck as his bunkmate without any problems. They avoided a deep conversation as the tech producer put it and the actor was changed and out the door before breakfast was done for the teenagers. He figured that Beck didn't want to share breakfast with his ex-girlfriend and her current boyfriend by himself without the others like they shared lunch.

Freddie rested his back against the wood panel as Jade started turning the tumbler for her lock.

Cat approached the couple and shouted, "Hi, Secret Santa time!"

Freddie motioned a hand to Cat. "She loves those short pants… even in December."

Cat's brow furled for a moment as she looked to Freddie.

Jade rolled her eyes as she looked away from her locker to the giddy redhead. "You're mine or his?"

She happily answered the dark brunette, "Yours." She handed the red gift bag to the green streaked hair teenager and continued, "For you."

Jade yanked the bag from the girl's hand and demanded, "Give it."

Tori quickly walked up to the trio and started, "Hey guys, um, can I ask you—"

"Shut up, I'm opening a Christmas present," she snapped at the lighter brunette for interrupting her.

Tori frowned and narrowed her gaze on the dark brunette as she whispered off to the side, "Grunch."

Freddie slightly shook his head and rolled his eyes. "She's been like this for the last week… but for very good reason, so could you be a little patient with her?"

Jade was too focused on her present to comment on what Freddie was saying about her to Tori as she pulled the glass container out of the red bag and whispered in disbelief, "Oh my God Cat, you did not?"

Cat let out a high pitch laugh and played with the ends of her hair.

Freddie smiled and curiously asked, "Scissors?"

"They're special scissors," she snapped as she glanced up at him.

He let out a soft laugh and responded with rubbing his hand up and down her left arm, "I see that since they're in a glass case, but I'm curious why they are special. You have to let me in on the secret so I can be excited as you."

The dark brunette didn't get a chance to reply as Cat answered for her and patted Freddie on the arm, "They're from a real movie."

Jade cracked a disbelieving smile as she opened the glass case, pulled the scissors out with one hand and passed the glass case back to Cat. She whispered still somewhat in disbelief, "I can't believe you got me these."

Tori asked with a curious tone, "What movie were they used in?"

The dark brunette examined the scissors as she turned them in her hand and distractedly answered, "The Scissoring."

Tori asked with a dreaded tone, "The one about the girl that comes back from the dead and uses a pair of scissors on her two best friends?"

Freddie answered with a slightly flippant tone, "Yeah because she can't deal with the fact that she's homosexual, so she resorted to trying to murder them. I found it offensive how all the characters were portrayed. It practically demonized gays, lesbians and Christians."

Jade looked to her boyfriend with a look of shock and shouted, "She was not a lesbian!"

Freddie softly tilted his head to the side and commented with a patient voice, "She clearly struggling with her sexuality throughout the entire film, both alive and dead. She thought killing them would purge herself of her homosexual feelings towards them. It's a horrible message in the first place then on top of it to try to make people think most Christians think that way. The imagery practically slapped you in the face about how obvious she was masking her feelings that she couldn't deal with. The movie is named 'The Scissoring' for a reason: imagery."

She frowned as she responded out of habit from his point, "Because she used scissors on them."

He rolled his eyes and blew out a breath. "Okay, I am not going to get into this debate with you _again_. We are just going to have to agree for what is the fifth, sixth time we've had this discussion that we aren't going to agree on the interpretation of the film."

Jade eyed her boyfriend for a few moments, but with a look in her eyes agreed that they were never going to come to the same conclusion about the film: his view that it was a hit piece against homosexuality and Christians and her view that it was just a horror film without any sexual undertones about a girl getting revenge at her friends that always unfairly got ahead of her with just happened to use scissors instead of the cliché butcher knife.

Tori laughed nervously, "Anyway, I'm going to be André's secret Santa and I have no clue what to get him."

Cat lifted her left hand and softly patted the brunette on the arm and commented happily, "Just get him a present."

Tori smiled patiently at the redhead and rested her hand softly on the shorter girl's shoulder. "Okay, help me please. I don't want to give him the worst present ever."

Freddie smirked as he replied with a hint of playfulness, "You could kiss him?"

Tori gave a slight frown then replied with a slightly annoyed tone as she tilted her head to the side, "Oh come on, be serious. I really need your help."

Freddie lost the playful look on his face as he answered with the most serious tone he could muster, "Tori, I am being serious."

Tori blinked and her mouth hung open for a second. Jade looked to Freddie with a little bit of a surprise that he would be that open about his thoughts on Tori and André as a couple.

Freddie bowed his head slightly, but kept a small smile on his face. "That's all I'm going to say on the matter."

Tori blew out a breath through her nose and shook her head. She turned and headed on her way before Jade could make her suggestion. Cat quickly followed the lighter brunette and accidentally taking the glass case for Jade's scissors.

Freddie slightly shook his head as she adjusted the strap of his book bag over his shoulder and across his chest. He called out to the retreating brunette, "I'll have your gift by Friday!"

Tori stopped and turned on her heels to look at him. She gave him a force smile and a quick wave then back on her way.

Jade spoke up with a hint of surprise in her voice that pulled him out of his train of thought as she opened her locker, "A little forward there weren't you?"

He glanced to meet his girlfriend's curious expression. "Maybe… but I guess I couldn't pass up the opportunity to point it out to her that there could be something more between them if they took a look." He grinned as he finished with a kiss to her cheek, "Why shouldn't they be as happy as us?"

Jade smirked as she shook her head while pulling a book out of her locker.

He softly laughed out, "I just hope they don't get into a situation where they become too afraid to put their feelings out to one another, thinking that the other one won't return their feelings. It can be quite scary… or so I think since I've never been scared to put them out there or worried about such a thing."

Jade put on an even expression as his words caught her off guard, especially the ones about being too afraid to be honest with one's feelings as she was on autopilot in shutting her locker. She felt a sudden dread coming over her in thinking that maybe she was the one subconsciously being too scared to say how she felt after nearly five months with him.

The brown eyed teenager smiled to her and commented, "I guess we need to get going." He pushed off the wood frame corner and started down the hall, assuming that Jade was right behind him, but she remained standing in place.

He quickly realized that she was not by his side, so he looked over his shoulder and gave her a warm smile. "Are you coming?"

The dark brunette blinked then cleared her throat and eagerly nodded her head to try to cover her hesitation. "Right, yeah…" She quickly walked up to catch up with him and he graciously offered his right arm for her to take. She looped her arm with his and the couple went off to their next class.

Vega Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Jade took a quick breath as she stopped in front of the Vegas' front door then pressed the doorbell. She only had to wait a few moments for the door to open to reveal Tori with a surprise look on her face.

"Jade?" Tori questioned seeing the dark brunette on the other side of the threshold resting her left shoulder against the door frame and holding her leather jacket over her left forearm.

"Correct," she answered with a smirk enjoying that she might get to toy with the lighter brunette for a bit before getting to why she came over.

She curiously asked, "What are you here for?"

"You." She walked past Tori and into the living room.

She dropped her jacket and bag onto the left red couch as Tori spoke up with a raised finger while still holding a book, "Wait, do you have your new scissors with you?"

The dark brunette slightly squinted her eyes as she replied a little annoyed, "No."

Tori gave her a questioning look and Jade blew out an annoyed breath. She threw out her arms to her side in an attempt to placated Tori's concerns. Tori dropped her book on the couch and immediately started patting up Jade's right arm then started on her left arm as Jade commented, "Trying to make Freddie jealous?"

Tori paused to look at the smirking dark brunette as she rested her hands on her the side of her abdomen. Tori started up her pat down of Jade's sides, but quickly stopped when she felt something under her elastic black waistband over the waistband of her skirt. She quickly pulled out a pair of scissors and opened and closed them quickly in an attempt to show that she had caught the brunette in a lie.

Jade crossed her arms under her chest and replied calmly with a strange hint of sweetness, "Those are my old scissor."

Tori rolled her eyes then dropped the scissors on the couch with Jade's other belongings. "Okay, so what do you want?"

She nearly had to force the words out of her mouth, "Merry Christmas."

The lighter brunette pointed to Jade asked incredulously, "You were going to be my Secret Santa?"

The dark brunette answered with a tired tone, "Ho, ho…"

"Ho," she finished with a wave of her hand. "So what's my gift?"

The faintest of smiles played on her lips as she answered, "An idea, for a present to give to André, unless you are going to take Freddie's advice and kiss him."

Tori looked apprehensive for a moment as if she was caught, but pushed through and answered, "No, I wasn't… so you have another idea?"

A corner of her mouth lifted as she answered coyly, "A perfect one… not knocking Freddie's suggestion of course."

The younger Vega sister replied happily, "Awesome, tell me."

Jade smirked as she countered, "Beg me."

"Oh come on, if you have an idea—" She was interrupted by Trina turning on the flocking machine and handling the nozzle with Robbie standing in front of her.

Trina raised her voice to talk over the machine to Robbie, "How do I make it flock?"

The curly haired teenager responded, "You press the red button right on top—"

Trina pressed the button and the gooey white mess spewed out covering Robbie's face completely. She sounded genuinely apologetic she spoke with an embarrassed expression on her face, "Sorry."

Robbie dryly responded, "Please give me a flock rag."

The other teenager girls looked on trying to take in the absurdity of what they just saw.

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Thursday, December 8, 2011

André and Freddie walked through the side entrance of the school by the main stairwell with André carrying a small Christmas wrapped present in his right hand. The pair quickly approached Beck leaning against the lockers apparently resting his eyes as even after two days he still hadn't caught up a week's worth of sleep.

The songwriter softly tapped the actor's elbow with the back of his left hand and called, "Hey man, hey Beck."

He quickly opened his eyes and asked the pair, "Hi, what?"

André thrust out his hand with the gift and shouted, "Bam."

Beck pointed to André with one hand and took the box with the other and asked, "So you're my secret Santa?"

"True chizz, but it's a gift from both of us. Open it up," he answered with a small smile and pointed to the box.

Beck brushed a hand through his hair and answered, "Okay." He opened the lid to the box then pulled out a small plastic case with a chirping sounding coming from it. "You two bought me a cricket?" he asked with disbelief and annoyance in his voice as he looked to his friend.

Freddie laughed then pointed to the plastic case as he answered, "No, we caught you a cricket. It's the one that's been living in your trailer… now we don't have to be bunkmates anymore."

Beck looked up to Freddie and asked the tech producer dumbfounded, "Shut up, how did you catch it?"

The songwriter answered, "Freddie and me this morning tried looking one more time in your RV. We weren't getting anywhere in catching it, so I used some peanut butter to lower him into that box."

Beck curiously asked, "How did you know crickets like peanut butter?"

André slightly shrugged his shoulders and calmly replied, "Everyone likes peanut butter."

Sikowitz quickly approached the trio and slyly asked, "Is that a cricket?"

The teenagers verbally signaled yes at the same time then Sikowitz asked, "Can I have it?"

Beck slightly furled his brow and handed the plastic container to Sikowitz and answered, "Sure."

Sikowitz took the case and quickly walked across the hall near the entrance and called out, "Courtney, Merry Christmas from your Secret Santa," as he handed her the plastic case.

The blonde hair teenager's mouth dropped open as she sucked in a surprised, but happy breath. Her brother quickly walked up beside her and asked, "What did you get?"

Courtney answered excitedly with a grin on her face, "A cricket."

Sinjin immediately replied, "That's hot." She nodded along in agreement.

The red velvet haired teenager had a brown overcoat wrapped around herself and a pair of reindeer antlers on her head as she rushed up from the bottom of the main stairwell. She patted Tori's arm as the brunette was also wearing a brown overcoat a red stocking hat on her head. Jade was standing beside her with a similar hat on her head and a black overcoat tied at the waist with her hands stuffed in her pockets. Cat pointed out to Tori down the stairs and down the hallway. "Here comes Robbie with André's teacher."

Tori took a quick glance over her left shoulder to confirm what the redhead was saying then instructed her with a soft pat on her stomach, "Hurry, go, go." Cat dashed behind her while Jade went to the opposite direction.

The lighter brunette grabbed the earpiece microphone wrapped around her right cheek to her lips and whispered, "Check, check." She slightly leaned forward with her hands resting on her thighs and called out, "Hey Anthony."

He stopped walking with Robbie and Rex and turned his attention to the younger Vega sister.

"Okay everyone, you guys all know Anthony, one of Hollywood Arts awesome music teachers."

Rex patted Anthony on the shoulder (with Robbie's help) and commented, "Here he is to my right."

The students loitering around in the hallway, by the lockers and around the stairwell looked to one another and agreed with that sentiment.

Tori continued, "Well, earlier this week, he gave André Harris a D on his Christmas song."

The gathered students turned to one another with confused expressions and mumbled among themselves if they heard correctly as to them it seemed pretty unbelievable.

André whined and dropped his book bag on the hallway floor, "Ah, man, now everyone knows."

Dusty looked to Anthony and commented loud enough for everyone to hear, "Wow, you really stink at your job, don't you?"

The music teacher snapped his head and looked with a deep frown across the hall to the Southern teenager.

The insult caught almost everyone's attention and Tori put on a worried expression that he was going to derail what she had planned.

Dusty wasn't intimidated by the look and responded, "I'm making a legitimate comment on your teaching ability…which you obviously don't have any if you're giving Harris a D on a song." He looked around to the rest of the students. "I guess he really isn't one of those awesome music teachers?"

Anthony took a slight step forward even if he was on the other side of the stairs from Dusty and frowned deeper if possible at the Southern teenager.

Dusty lost his smile and replaced it with an even stare as he answered back, "I use to go to Northridge; I know a sorry teacher when I see one."

Tori smiled nervously and interrupted before Anthony could respond to Dusty's challenge, "Whoa, let's calm down for a minute. We can understand the feelings, so we thought you guys should hear André's Christmas song and see what you think."

Anthony cocked his head to the side as his hands rested on his hips as apparently he didn't like that idea.

The girls simultaneously dropped their coats to reveal some revealing and sexy Christmas outfits and André's band started playing behind them.

Freddie started in a slow whisper when he got a good look at Jade, "Oh my Go—" Freddie closed his eyes and slightly shook his head. He whispered, "Freddie… naughty thoughts lead to naughty actions…"

Beck's jaw dropped open and blinked looking at the shorter teenager. He raised his voice higher than normal conversational volume and snapped, "Dude! I'm standing right here."

Freddie turned his head and gave Beck an embarrassed expression. "Sorry."

The actor frowned then turned his attention back to the girls with Freddie while Dusty across the hall had a hand over his mouth hiding a smirk at seeing Cat's outfit.

Jade turned to dash up one side of the stairs while Cat went to the other direction.

Tori started swaying her candy cane stripped short shorts, "_Carolers singing, sleigh bells are ringing, it's that time of year, everyone's toasting, chestnuts are roasting, Christmas time is near_."

As she started her next verse, Jade and Cat started walking down the steps swaying their skirt covered hips and wearing wicked smiles, "_Something's missing and I'm wishing, wishing that you knew, how much it would mean to spend this…_" Jade and Cat joined her as they stood on either side of Tori, "_Christmas time with youuuuu_."

Jade picked up solo, "_So if you feel it coming—_" Cat followed alone, "_On this special day—_" All three girls picked up, Just trust your heart, don't let your head get in the way, 'cause it's Christmas."

All three girls swung their hips as Tori started solo again, "_And the start of something new, oh it's Christmas, and I hope you will feel it too—_" Tori turned to Cat as she continued singing as she caught a blow kiss from the red velvet haired teenager, "_Candy canes and mistletoe._" As she song, "_Jack Frost nipping at your nose—_" she turned to Jade and tapped her nose with her left pointer finger and the dark brunette playfully barked at her. "_But all of it means nothing, without you!_"

The three girls got in line behind one another, Jade, Tori and Cat then swung their hips in the same direction in sequence as Tori rested her hands on the small of Jade's back and Cat did the same to Tori.

"_Just for a minute, you get a feeling. Look up in the sky_," the trio sang and each pointed up at the ceiling. Tori picked up as they motioned their respective right arms towards their rights and to the students, "_Santa's here, so get in the spirit. Just give it a try._"

The trio of singing teenagers started walking down the steps as they continued singing, "_Children beaming and I'm dreaming. Hoping that it's true._" They turned to face Anthony, André, Freddie and Beck as they continued, "_'Cause it would mean so much to spend this Christmas time with you!_"

Cat and Jade turned to face the opposite direction towards Sinjin, Courtney and Dusty then Jade continued solo while Cat pointed to the three with a happy grin, "_So if you feel it comin'—_" Cat picked up, "_On the special dayyyy—_" The pair picked up together while Jade swung her hips, "_Just trust your heart 'cause I can't wait to hear you say!_" Jade winked with laughter in the direction of the three then turned with Cat to sing with Tori, "_That it's Christmas!_" Jade and Cat swung their hips and their respective skirts flew up to give a brief view of their red matching briefs. "_And the start of something new. Well it's Christmas!_"

Jade and Cat turned and walked back to the other end and danced with Dusty taking Cat's hand for a moment while Tori approached André as she continued singing, "_And I hope you will feel it too!_"

Tori pulled a hidden microphone from beside the stairwell and handed it to the songsmith who immediately picked up, "_Everyone together sing. Silver bells, and golden rings, but all of it means nothingggg—_"

Jade and Cat ran back to join Tori and André with Cat to André's left and Jade to Tori's right. All joined to finish the song with Cat hitting a high note at one point, "_Without youuuu! It's not Christmas without you-you-you. It's not Christmas without youuuu!_"

As everyone started cheering, André shouted with a laugh into the microphone, "Yeah, that's my girls!"

Tori opened her arms wide and stated with a cheerful voice, "Merry Christmas, from your Secret Santa." André leaned forward in an instant and pulled her into a hug that she eagerly returned.

Anthony hesitantly took a step forward and apprehensively started, "Alright, okay, maybe I was wrong about your song."

Tori approached the music teacher and began with a big smile on her face, "So now you're going to change André's grade to…"

Anthony hesitantly began, "Ah…"

Tori rubbed her chin with her right hand and suggested, "Perhaps an A?"

The music teacher offered André his right hand and answered, "An A."

André accepted the hand and pulled him into a one arm hug. They pulled apart a moment later and Cat immediately wrapped her arms around the songwriter. Jade slipped into his right arm for a hug of her own then Tori wrapped her arms around Cat and Jade to join the group hug.

They group finally separated after a long hug and started on their individual ways to talk to the various students around. Cat excitedly talked to Dusty, Sinjin and Courtney while Jade approached Freddie with a wicked smile on her face. Unnoticed to either, Beck slipped away behind Freddie with a frown on his face.

Freddie gently took her black gloved covered left hand by her fingers and kept her arms slightly raised high enough as if he was going to kiss her satin covered knuckles, but shook his head as he looked his girlfriend up and down.

She smiled brightly as she motioned towards herself with her other black gloved covered hand and she asked, "What do you think?"

The tech producer had to laugh for a moment then answered with a smile playing on his lips, "I'm thinking of a lot of adjectives… hot, sizzling, amazing, beautiful, drop dead gorgeous… those are the ones that I can think of off the top of my head. I know there are plenty of more I could come up with if you gave me a little more time."

She stepped to him and wrapped her arms behind his neck and smiled to him. "I think that's enough for the time being."

He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her so close against him that their noses were nearly touching. They both leaned in at the same time and let their lips meet with a soft touch. They traded a few more tender kisses then pulled their lips apart to look into each other's eyes.

He grinned as he whispered to her in a conspiratorial manner, "Any chance I'll see you in this outfit during Christmas?"

She let out a sensual laugh then gave him a coy look as she kissed his top lip. She looked in straight in the eyes and answered with a saucy tone, "Maybe… if you're a good boy… or maybe a naughty boy."

Friday, December 9, 2011

On the large video monitor, Jade could be seen leaning back on a stool beside a counter one of the main music room at Hollywood Arts. There were two bottles next to her right arm she was resting on the countertop.

"Hey, hi, I'm just going to…" She motioned to the bottles resting beside her, "Before I start the video I don't even know why I'm making, I just got to do this." Jade lifted up a bottle filled with green colored mouth wash and took a swig from it. She threw her head back and started gargling. A moment later she spit it out in another bottle that looked like some form of soft drink.

"You know there is this preschool right next door to Hollywood Arts. Well I'm going to go over and get some random kids and bring them back here to do some interviews that I can almost guarantee will be insanely boring."

"As always I call this segment: Jade with Tots." She leaned forward towards the camera and picked up a yellow piece of cardboard out of view of the camera. She took a moment to turn it right side up and hold it against her chest. "I made this fabulous sign. I hate it."

The scene switched to Jade sitting in a red chair across from a little girl with light brunette hair on the couch. Jade stared at the child impatiently for a few moments until she threw out her hands and asked, "Well what's your name?"

"Hannah."

"Okay, Hannah," the dark haired teenager replied still holding a bit of irritation in her voice. "Let me tell you what we are going to do today."

"Okay."

Jade motioned with her hands towards the small child. "Now you are going to tell me things you like and then I am going to give you information about those things. Got it?"

"Yep," she nodded.

"Tell me something you like."

Hannah answered eagerly, "Candy."

She smoothly countered, "Candy rots your teeth."

Jade clicked her tongue off the roof of her mouth for the moment she looked way from the preschooler and slightly shrugged her shoulders. She looked back with a somewhat board expression towards the child and continued, "What else do you like?"

"Television."

Jade rested her pointer and middle fingers of her left hand on her temple as she countered quickly, "Kids watch too much television and that's why people are illiterate and don't get enough exercise." She pulled the hand away from the side of her face and shifted her weight on her left forearm on the armrest. "And when you don't get enough exercise you gain a lot of weight and eventually get Type Two Diabetes."

"You're weird."

Her brow furled and answered somewhat shocked, "I'm weird?"

Jade looked back to the camera with an annoyed expression on her face.

The scene jumped to Jade still sitting in her chair, but another child was sitting on the couch.

"Okay, I had enough of that kid, so I got a different one." She turned her head away from the camera and looked to the blonde haired child. "Hey."

"Hey."

She lazily asked, "What do you like?"

"Swimming in the ocean."

Jade narrowed her eyes on the child and asked with a slightly sarcastic tone, "Really? Did you know oceans are actually filled with industrial toxic waste? And even the really clean oceans are filled with fish poop. Do you really like swimming in fish poop and industrial toxic waste?"

"You're scary."

"You think so? Because I can be way scarier than this. Okay, now tell me something—"

Freddie walked around behind her and tapped her shoulder and knelt down beside red chair.

"We're filming," she whispered back with a hint of surprise as she met his eyes.

Freddie started hesitantly, "Ah, Jade…"

She interrupted with an annoyed tone, "You're butting into my Tot interview."

"Ah, you have to stop this."

She shrugged her shoulders and replied with a hint of indignity, "I'm just talking to them."

"Yeah, but you're sounding like my mother," he pointed out with regret in his voice.

Jade frowned in an instant and glared at him. "That's not funny."

"I'm not laughing and this isn't like the other interviews. You're just really picking on them and I have to say something about it."

She sighed with a roll of her eyes, "Fine, then who am I going to interview?"

The scene cut again, with Jade still relaxing in the comfy red chair with her left arm on the left armrest. "Hi, I'm back." She motioned to Freddie sitting on the red couch cattycorner to her. "This is my boyfriend Freddie Benson and if you don't know who he is, then what rock have you been living under?"

Freddie kept an even expression as he slightly shook his head.

The dark brunette turned to look to her patient boyfriend and with a slight roll of her eyes, flippantly asked, "Okay, tell me something that you like?"

He grinned at her and let out a soft chuckle, "What do I like? That's kind of an open ended question, but… let me start with the most important thing I like: you… definitely you would be the most important thing I like."

"Aww…" she whispered out then stood up from the chair. She crossed the short distance sit across Freddie's lap and immediately wrapped her left arm behind his neck and pulled him into a kiss. She broke the kiss for a moment to turn her body to reach the remote for the camera on the small circular table between her seat and the couch. She immediately shifted back to capture his lips again and spared a look with her right eye to the camera as she lifted the remote towards it and pressed the power button.

* * *

><p>Carly leaned back in her seat in her room while wearing a sad expression as the video ended on her large monitor hanging over her desk. She bowed her head down to look at her desk and let her shoulders slump.<p>

Mrs. Benson was behind her and pointed to the screen. She shouted with a high pitched voice, "See, see? You have to help me put a stop to that."

The brunette lifted her head and clenched her jaw tight. She refused to reply to the irate mother.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Sikowitz was lucky he didn't get his butt fired for such a stunt he pulled in the episode. Also, I hope my twist to what people thing think about 'The Scissoring' was thought provoking. Also yes, I did rework Jade's last 'Jade with Tots' video. I hope I didn't offend any Bade shippers by substituting Freddie. Hope the next chapter is Friday.<p> 


	29. Chapter 29: I'm not Clarence

Author's Note: Merry Christmas everyone! Wait, it's not Christmas in July yet… anyway I hope this week is treating you well. Now this is my longest chapter yet (Fanfiction says it's over 20,000 words), so it is going to take you a little while to read it, but I hope you enjoy it. This is still a Christmas theme chapter, so… don't be surprised with what could happen especially with what Dan has allowed in his shows before.

wickedmatt717: I'm glad you notice those 'little thing' because they are actually groundwork for future chapters and this chapter should remind you of some of those things I put in past chapters. I'm always happy to reply to my reviewers. It may not show for the majority of the chapters, but that is due to personally answering registers members through PMs.

CartoonistGirl6: Thanks.

Twilight Warrior 627: I'm sorry, but I don't remember personally answering you, so I'll do it now: Sikowitz's stunt with the Secret Santa was a big no-no as in get himself fired. Dan puts a lot of innuendo in his show and as the first story showed, Freddie would have 'first hand' experience with Jade's comment and I'm glad you liked that version of the Tots video. I didn't mean to offend any Bade shippers because that is an extremely tender moment for the pair especially with what was going to happen in the future episodes.

Okay, on with the story with a few guest stars and appearances: Guest Appearance by Frankie Grande as Cat's brother, Guest Starring Julie McNiven.

And Special Guest Appearance by Michael Ironside as Mister Lynn

* * *

><p>Chapter 29: 'I'm not Clarence'<p>

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Friday, December 9, 2011

"Trina! Trina!" Freddie called out as he briskly walked to catch up with the brunette with layered highlights walking down the hallway.

The older Vega sister turned as she heard her name being called. She smiled at seeing who was calling her and answered, "Hey Freddie."

He gave a soft laugh in reply, "Hey Trina."

She smirked as she looked at the tech producer catch a breath. "Why in such a hurry to catch me?" she asked with a hint of flirtation in her voice.

He heard the tone in her voice and his smile grew bigger. He held up a green gift bag and answered playfully, "Christmas present of course."

The light brunette slightly tilted her head to the side and put on a curious expression. She asked with evident surprise and curiosity, "I thought you weren't doing that whole Secret Santa thing."

He slightly shook his head as he answered as if it was the most obvious answer, "I'm not. I'm getting presents for my friends."

The pair shared a warm smile as the Trina got his message. She took the bag from his hand then looked inside.

Freddie explained, "It's a whole bag worth of goodies of various soaps, lotions, that sort of thing and a certificate for an all day… whatever they do at a day spa. Let someone pamper _you_ for the day."

She pulled the certificate out of the bag and eyes shot open wide as she read at what spa he bought the certificate. "Wow, ah Freddie…"

He let out a soft chuckle, "You're welcome Trina. You get what you pay for, so I wanted the best."

Trina quickly pulled him into a hug. She whispered into his ear, "You're so sweet, you know that?"

Freddie grinned as he pulled apart from her and answered, "Jade would call it charming."

She gave him a flirtatious smirk and wink as she retorted, "You're that too."

He bowed his head and softly shook his head as he tried to keep a smirk off his face, but failing miserably. The brown eyed teenager looked up and gave her a soft smile and whispered, "Merry Christmas Trina."

She returned with an equally meaningful smile, "Merry Christmas Freddie."

The tech producer offered his arm to the comedic Vega sister. "Walk you to class?"

She gladly accepted the arm then led him in the direction of her class. As they were turning the corner in front of the drink machines and janitor's closest, he commented, "I love the new coloring you've done to your hair by the way."

Sikowitz's Advance Acting I  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Friday, December 9, 2011

The dismissal bell rang and the teenagers were eager to leave to get to lunch as any high schooler would know that being assigned to the last lunch can be brutal. They were immediately out of their seats, not waiting for the acting teacher to dismiss them, and gathered to the door to file out. About half of them had exited when Sikowitz called out, "Freddie, could I have a second?"

A number of the rest turned to look at the acting teacher and Freddie, curious as to what the pair might say to one another. Freddie immediately put on an even expression then glanced to Jade. She gave a soft shrug of her shoulders not having a clue as to what the balding teacher would want from him. Freddie turned to face Sikowitz and gave Jade a slight nod to let her know that it was alright to head for lunch. The dark brunette was hesitant, but relented and followed the rest out of the door to meet the rest of their friends at lunch.

As soon as the last student was out the door, the brown eyed teenager looked to his teacher with a stoic expression and spoke, "You're cutting into my lunch and I have something to do Sikowitz, so make this quick."

The balding blew out a breath and took the few steps down off the stage so he would be on even footing with his student. He hesitantly began, "Freddie… I wanted to talk to you about Monday—"

Freddie laughed as he interrupted the acting teacher, "If you want to apologize to me then I'll get back to you on about accepting it, but since we're approaching Christmas, odds are that I'll accept it soon."

Sikowitz slightly tilted his head as he asked curiously, but Freddie could hear him slip a little authority in his voice, "You don't think you owe me an apology?"

Freddie raised an eyebrow and was genuinely curious as he asked, "For what?"

Sikowitz raised his brow as he responded, "The way you spoke to me in front of the class. I am your teacher after all."

Freddie took a step towards him and retorted with his voice filled with irritation, "One that had the nerve to presume to tell me how to practice my faith and knew nothing about how I was going to observe the holiday, threatened my girlfriend about how she could spend her Christmas Eve if you didn't like the present you were attempted to force her to give someone and insulted my friend and her sister. I was quite justified in what I said to you and I'm not apologizing for it."

Sikowitz crossed his arms over his chest and raised his eyebrows and spoke in a tone that suggested that he talking about an intellectual exercise than an actually threat, "What if I disagree?"

Freddie's brow furled and put on a small frown as he partially turned so he could point to the door behind him with his left pointer finger. "Then we can finish this conversation with Lane and Helen and Helen _likes me_. Whose side do you think she's going to take?" He dropped his hand from pointing to the door and turned to completely face the acting teacher he was rapidly losing respect for. "Then you're going to have to deal with Mrs. West and she is not happy with you over telling her daughter how to celebrate Christmas. You thought Jade could be scary?" Freddie finished with a smirk.

The barefooted teacher pulled his arms tighter across his chest and in a dry tone replied, "I won't keep you any longer from lunch."

Freddie resisted blowing out a dismissive breath through his nose and instead gave him a brief nod then turned and headed out the door. As he exited the classroom, he called out over his shoulder, "See you Monday Sikowitz."

Asphalt Café  
>Hollywood Arts High School<br>Friday, December 9, 2011

The group of friends was gathered around their table starting on their lunch as Jade kept glancing around to see if she could spot Freddie. She was growing a little concerned about his absent until she finally saw him jogging up to the table with his lunch in one hand and a small gift bag in the other.

Freddie sat the gift bag in front of Tori and with a big grin on his face spoke, "Merry Christmas Tori."

The lighter brunette blinked as Freddie had a seat between her and Jade. "Ah… thanks?" she uttered with a surprised expression on her face then looked to the bag.

Freddie opened up his lunch container and shook his head while wearing a smirk. "You know I racked my brain trying to figure out what to get you."

Rex spoke up, "Why would that be hard? Your two friends before you got here were female."

Jade slightly frowned at hearing the puppet referred to the girls, but Freddie laughed as he answered, "Carly was always… _complicated_ to shop for each year, but Sam was easy: just throw ham or some meat product in her way and she would be fine. Neither was actually helpful in picking out something for Tori."

The light brunette finished pulling a small jewelry box and opened up it up to reveal a silver charm bracelet with several charms indicating peace, love, peace and friendship. She looked to him with a surprised expression and asked, "A bracelet?"

"A friendship bracelet with _your_ actual name in it," Freddie laughed as he clarified and referred back to when Steven gave Tori a 'one of a kind' bracelet to her while he was dating her and Carly with someone else's name in it (which he wasn't sure if anyone else at the table other then her and him knew about that bracelet and the circumstances around it). "I tried to think of something deeply symbolic and meaningful then I realized just to pick something straight forward for my friend."

Tori looked down at the bracelet and smile for a moment. She looked back to him and leaned over to warp her left arm over his upper back and rest the side of her forehead against his temple and whispered, "Thanks Freddie."

He softly chuckled and replied, "You're welcome."

Tori sat back up and attempted to put on the bracelet, but failed several times to leach it around her wrist until André reached over and helped her with the clasp.

Jade glanced over to Freddie and covered her smile with her hand to hide her expression. If she thought it was possible, she would have thought that Freddie somehow arranged for her questionable rival to have trouble with her bracelet and need André's help.

The group of friends turned back to their eating and casually chatting about their day and yesterday, specifically about the performance. Lunch seemed to fly by and the students were already cleaning up and heading on their way to their final period of the day.

Instead of heading back into the school, Jade started towards the parking lot next to the café. Freddie spoke up loud enough with a laugh for her to hear him just as she rounded the table, "Where are you going? Class is the other way."

Jade turned and wore a tired smile. "My last period teacher bailed, so I'm going to the preschool next door and borrow a few kids. I'm going to make another 'Jade with Tots' video."

Freddie slightly rolled his eyes and blew out a soft breath. He called out as she continued to his car, "Later."

She threw a hand over her shoulder acknowledging him.

The brown eyed teenager smirked and shook his head.

Tori spoke up to catch his attention, "Since Mister Allen said he was going to start class late, we got a few more minutes so…"

Freddie raised an eyebrow and answered back, "So?"

Tori scooted over to sit beside him and leaned her head down. "When I was asking for your help to pick out a gift for André, were you really serious about what you said to me? About you know…" She leaned closer to him and whispered, "Kissing him." She pulled back, but still had her head bowed as to not be overheard when he answered.

Freddie looked down at the table and took a slow breath then back up to his brunette friend. "Yes, I was quite serious."

The brunette blinked at looking at her friend's serious expression. She swallowed then hesitantly asked, "Why?"

He gave her a soft smile. "Because I see something between you that's very special. I mean you're best friends and you're each other's rocks. You can always count on each other. If I…" He took a soft breath and put on a regretful smile. "If Carly and I had the friendship you and André have, I wouldn't have left Seattle. Everything that happened wouldn't have happened in the first place… but to my point: I just think that you two could have something really special if you took the time to look at one another. I'm kind of surprise that he's not had the same revelation about you as he did with Jade."

Tori started playing with her fingertips and looked down at the table as she hesitantly asked, "Just playing a little Devil's advocate, but… isn't that kind of what Carly wanted for you and Sam?

Freddie let out a soft chuckle. "When's the last time André closed fist hit you in the face or the stomach or anywhere else? Or told you that you were worthless and no one would ever love you or that he hated you? Repeatedly? Or had a hand in breaking you up with the person you loved in hindsight may had other than noble motives?"

Tori took a sharp breath and looked to him as if he was insane for suggesting that André would do such a thing.

Freddie shrugged a shoulder and continued, "There is no comparison between me and Carly in that regard. She cared about nothing but Sam's happiness, but I care about both of yours happiness and like I said, you two care about each other… don't tell me he wasn't thinking about you when he wrote a 'A Song to You', even if it wasn't consciously."

She offered with a hesitant smile and uncertainty in her voice, "Sometimes friends are just friends."

The tech producer laughed out for a few moments then responded, "I thought the same thing… boy did I think the same thing… just before I got with Jade. Sometimes there's something more there than friendship."

The younger Vega sister gave him a nod of her head and the pair remained silent for a few minutes as she turned her attention back to examining her bracelet around her wrist. Freddie caught a glance of Jade pulling back up in his Charger with several preschoolers in the vehicle. He wondered how she was able to just 'borrow' the preschoolers to come over, but never bothered to really ask her. A part of him was afraid that he wouldn't like the answer.

He commented to Tori, "I better go and make sure Jade doesn't go overboard. She's still a little… twisted up from last week."

As he stood up, she asked with squinted eyes, "Over what?"

Freddie hesitated for a moment then admitted with a tired voice, "My mother. See ya in a few Tori."

She waved at his departing form and called out, "Later."

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Saturday, December 10, 2011

Freddie leaned back in his chair as he looked at Carly on his monitor. He ran a hand over his forehead and through his short hair as he commented with a regretful tone, "I'm sorry Carls, but I can't go up during break… I don't trust my mother enough not try something, like finding someway to keep me there. I'm not putting anything past her."

Carly leaned forward and rested her folded arms on the table and wore a sorrowful expression. She gave a quick nod and answered, "Yeah… I—I understand. Your mom… she's not happy. She's _still_ bugging me to help come up with some way to get you back for good."

Freddie raised a curious eye brow as he casually asked, "What has she suggested?"

The brunette broke eye contact with her ex-boyfriend and a small blush formed on her cheeks. She attempted to clear her throat several times before muttering, "Trying to lure you back."

"How exactly?"

Her eyes kept darting away as she refused to meet his eyes as she answered, "As in… playing on your old feelings with me."

Freddie sat up straighter in his chair and cleared his throat. "Yeah, well… that would be—"

"Sick? Heartless? Manipulative?"

The former Seattleite let out a dark chuckle, "Those are a few words to describe such an attempt."

She let out a humorless laugh as she commented, "You wouldn't believe me now anyway about them being real and it wouldn't make a difference."

The brown eyed teenager's brow furled as he looked to her.

She quickly closed her mouth and her eyes widened then stuttered a few times before getting out, "I—I mean with everything that's happened, I don't know why your mother would think that would work, just on ah… practical level."

He nodded along and cautiously answered with a drawn out tone, "Right…"

Carly cleared her throat again and started avoiding his eyes again as Freddie remained silent.

He gave the brunette a few more moments to gather herself then started with a hopeful tone, "Well, my birthday is the first week of February, so I can come up for a long weekend over President's Day weekend? We don't get that week off like you do, but I think I could skip a day and spend Tuesday up there and not have to worry about my mother trying anything."

The web-hostess instantly put on a smile at hearing that news and excitedly responded, "That sounds like a great idea. We can throw you a late birthday present."

He grinned in return with is comment, "It sounds like a plan."

A comfortable silence fell between the former friends working their way back to something. He relaxed in his seat and commented, "I'm going to send your Christmas present off tomorrow. Don't peak until Christmas."

Carly's face instantly froze as she commented in an embarrassing tone, "I… I didn't get you anything. I thought…"

He gave her a warm smile and raised a hand. "You don't have to get me anything. This is my way of letting you know—in a tangible way that things really are getting better for us."

She let out a relieved breath and appeared to feel even better than when he made his suggestion of coming up after his birthday.

He let out a breath and cautiously began, "I'm not exactly sure how to ask this… after everything and we're still…"

"What?"

He gave her a boyish grin and asked, "If you want to give me a Christmas present, could you do it as a favor to me?"

Carly raised an eyebrow as she was intrigued with what he was going to ask her.

Hales' Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Tuesday, December 13, 2011

It was late afternoon as Dusty was in his room relaxing in his desk chair with his sock covered feet propped up on his desk as he was casually double checking the newest postings of the students' videos on TheSlap. He obviously couldn't review every one of them personally since there were over a thousand students going to the school and each one of them had a page, but since he was unofficially in charge of TheSlap he did double check the most popular newest videos to make sure they were acceptable. He didn't want them to be the most popular videos because someone decided to be funny or get payback on someone else with a video of him or her getting drunk and stripping or anything else embarrassing.

He was not going to have a repeat of Robarazzi of using TheSlap as someone's personal server for cyber-bullying to harass the innocent (Cat), making up from whole cloth about couples on the verge of breaking up (Jade and Beck), remarking on someone's physical appearance (Tori) and putting up photo shopped pictures with racist undertones from the point of view of someone with Dusty's background (André with giant photo shopped ketchup bottles being used as stand-ins for chicken wings and watermelons). He still wondered why no one had bothered to just to kick Robbie's ass for the stuff he put up. He knew Robbie was very lucky he hadn't paid much attention to it as he was too busy adjusting to going to the new school and wasn't with Cat as he would have put a quick stop to his silly little parody without resulting in some nonsensical blackmail.

Another reason he was going over the videos was that he knew that Helen would use any excuse to get rid of him for managing TheSlap. It was no secret to him that she didn't appreciate the fact that he was among the ones that stood up to her about having to re-addition to remain in Hollywood Arts… or the fact he said to her face during the whole ordeal that the only reason she was hired as the new principal was because she was black.

He still wondered why Vice Principal Dickers never sued over clearly being passed over for the job to give to Helen due to him being white and she black since he was an experienced administrator and former teacher while Helen didn't even have the bare minimum requirements (such as having a Master's Degree, several administrative certifications, teaching for several years, being an assistant/associate/vice principal for at least a year before applying and several years at some other administrative position at the secondary level while all that had to be split between at least two schools over a minimum course of eight years) to even have her application _considered_ least long the literal laundry list of preferences that county wanted _in addition_ to those minimum requirements in order to be _hired_.

Helen hadn't expected anyone to take the time to look up the PDF file on the Los Angeles Unified School District's website about the criteria to be considered for a principal position then look up to see that she had none of those to her name with her only recent experience being a movie theater manager in San Diego for the last several years and a washed up child actor with an over abundance sense of self-importance _then_ having the willingness to throw it up in her face.

So, of course afterwards there was no love lost between the teenager that didn't respect her because she got the job over someone else, not because she had superior credentials and merit to Dickers (same reason most of the faculty didn't respect her, especially the math and science teachers), but by the color of her skin and the principal that looked at him as just some racist boy from the South for having the nerve to suggest her experience as an actor when she was a child or being able to hit a high musical note wasn't enough to be the principal of the school.

As he was wrapping up looking at another video, he heard the ping that indicated that someone wanted to video chat with him. He never really cared to chat with anyone at school and only used it to keep in touch with his cousins back home and wasn't expecting a chat with any of them today, but he was curious at the name appearing on his screen, so he accepted the video chat.

The smiling face of Freddie Benson appeared on his screen and Dusty replied, "Benson? What's up?"

He shrugged a shoulder quickly and replied, "Nothing much, I just wanted to see that you were on. I have your Christmas present."

Dusty snorted out, "Christmas present? You're supposed to give those to friends, not fans unless it's some kind of performance, like when you use to do those Christmas specials on iCarly."

Freddie remained silent for a moment as he contemplated the teenager's apparent opinion on how he thought Freddie saw him or maybe more accurately saw himself in regards to Freddie. He gave a soft nod and finally continued, "I guess then this is my way to thank you for all that you've done with Jade's videos and keeping an eye on her when Nevel did her interview—"

Dusty interrupted with a sharp tone almost as if he was offended, "Hey, I did that because it was the right thing to do and for my honor, not to get something out of it. I don't want anything from you."

The brown eyed teenager shook his head then countered, "Fine, accept the Christmas gift as one Christian giving one to another. Okay?"

Dusty wore a weary expression as he sat in silence for a few seconds making Freddie wonder if he was still going to say no, but Cat's ex finally answered, "I'm doing this under protest."

Freddie cracked a smile as he replied, "Fine, but I think you'll enjoy it."

The web-master brought up the obvious question, "How are you going to give me a present over the computer?"

He smirked as he answered, "Actually, there is someone that's suppose to come on-line that I think you might get a kick out of talking to."

The Southern teenager raised an eyebrow and responded in a coy voice, "You have me intrigued now." The next moment he heard a ping from Freddie's side and saw the Seattle native type away at his computer for a moment.

Freddie smiled up at him and comment, "Here she is; you just have to accept the request and I will leave you two alone."

Dusty took a moment to contemplate if this was some kind of joke, but figured Freddie wouldn't pull that on him, so he hit accept while Freddie closed his window from his side. The next moment a lovely brunette with a bright smile appeared on his screen that he was quite familiar with seeing.

She let out a soft laugh as she saw his surprised expression and taking his feet off the corner of his desk as to sit up straight in his seat, "Hi Dustin, I'm Carly. Freddie said you're a fan of the show?"

He found himself suddenly clearing his voice and stuttering out a response, "Yes, ah… hi Miss Shay… ah… I'm Dustin Hale, but people call my Dusty, except for Cat and she calls me Soapy and…" He let out a soft tension relieving laugh then put on a grin and leaned forward to rest his forearms on his desk and finish, "I know you must get this all the time, but… you are a very _lovely_ web-hostess."

Carly smiled and laughed out with a soft giggle and a slight blush of her cheeks.

He put on a boyish grin and asked, "So how are you doing ma'am?"

* * *

><p>The rest of the school week played out for the students at Hollywood Arts without much excitement other than waiting for Friday to arrive and start ChristmasWinter Break. Freddie got around to giving his gift to André of a nice gift certificate to a high end music store to help out on any equipment he was going to use when he started his music career after graduation or sooner as he remembered that he had been working on some music for his first album with Tori during the summer. André looked a little apprehensive after the comment, but put on a grateful smile and his cheery personality.

He was thankful that letting Beck stay over two nights and help get rid of the cricket was his Christmas present to the actor since he really didn't know what to get him (proving once again to himself how closed up the teenager really was to people) and didn't want to have to ask Jade what he could get the heartthrob to the ladies.

The week ended and Freddie was right to work for the weekend at the Pear Store for holiday shoppers and foreseeable future of most of the week before Christmas.

Shapiro Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Freddie pulled up into the Shapiro driveway a few minutes before eleven pm. He was exhausted as he parked the beaten Charger and stepped out of his vehicle with gift bag in hand. He took a few quick strides up to the Shapiro home and knocked on the front door. He waited a few moments before the door opened to reveal a surprised looking Robbie. "Ah… hi Freddie."

The Pear employee smiled to his friend as he replied, "Hey Robbie. I'm sorry I'm just to drop by so late, but I just got off the late shift and… well can I come in for a second?"

"Yeah, sure," the glasses wearing teenager answered and motioned his arm to wave Freddie inside. He stepped inside the Shapiro home and took a quick glance of the surroundings. It was a typically decorated house as far as he could see.

Robbie spoke up, "So what do I owe to this visit?"

Freddie turned and smiled as he offered a blue bag that he had discreetly hidden from view as he walked inside, "Happy Hanukkah my friend."

Robbie took the blue gift bag with a surprise on his face and reached inside. He pulled out a blue Mark II pear shaped PearPad. He blinked a few times then looked to Freddie. He asked with evident shock in his voice, "You got me a PearPad?"

The brown eyed teenager cracked a smile as he explained, "It's a refurbished one to replace the one that André broke. I personally refurbished it, but it has the same one year warranty as the one's you'd buy from the PearStore. It saved me a lot of money doing it myself, so don't feel like you have to spend a lot on me in the future."

Robbie laughed and started as he was looking down at his pad, "Oh, I wasn't—" Robbie looked up and put on an embarrassed expression.

Freddie let out a soft chuckle. "It's alright Robbie. I of all people know how tight money can be at times especially if you're focusing exclusively on school and not working. My mother use to only give me eight dollars a week in allowance. She was afraid I'd buy a bus ticket and leave her."

"And now you're here in L.A.," he answered with a nervous smile.

Freddie slightly bowed his head and answered, "The irony is not lost on me. Life can take you on paths you could never imagine."

"Like living here and being Jade's boyfriend?"

Freddie just grinned and patted his friend on the shoulder. "I need to get going. I don't want to interrupt any more than I have to. I hope you and your family have a Happy Hanukkah." The tech producer turned and headed out the door.

"Thanks Freddie. Have a Merry Christmas if I don't get to see you before then."

Freddie nodded his head then headed out the door.

Freddie spent the rest of the week with his nose to the grindstone getting as much work in during the week leading up to Christmas. It wasn't too bad spending his day at the store since he couldn't legally work overtime during the Christmas rush, but even working a little in sales when someone need questions answered on a more technical aspect gave him extra in sales commissions. His afternoons and nights were great with Jade and sometimes with the rest of his friends including his first poker game with the group at Tori and Trina's house and was pretty fun playing with a mixture of Skittles and M&Ms even if Cat wanted to keep sticking the Skittles in her mouth instead of the pot.

The day before Christmas Eve finally rolled around and his mother arrived to spend Christmas Eve and Day with them then head back up to spend a few days with the rest of her family. Mrs. Benson surprisingly kept on her best behavior after arriving and during the Christmas Eve day. Whether it was out of guilt for her behavior during her last visit or what she did when she got back to Seattle or just keeping peace as to not be thrown out again was anyone's guess and the Wests guessed it was the latter.

Hollywood United Methodist Church  
>6817 Franklin Avenue<br>Hollywood, CA  
>Christmas Eve<br>Saturday, December 24, 2011

Freddie remained in his seat as the pastor finished his Christmas Eve service and the parishioners stood up and started filing out to congregate around the entrance and outside the church. His mother stood up from the pew and started her way down until she realized that Freddie wasn't following her. She turned and looked down at him with a curious expression of him remaining in his seat.

He looked up and gave his mother a smile. "I just need a few minutes."

He was surprised that she remained silent and only gave him a brief nod. He figured that she thought he might be asking forgiveness for his sin with Jade or whatever other sins he guessed she thought he had committed with his girlfriend while he was in L.A. "I'll be outside with the pastor. Take all the time you need."

"Thanks mom," he responded with a guarded tone.

He remained seated as he glanced around and saw that the parishioners were leaving in an orderly fashioned. There was a number that looked eager to go as their children seemed pretty anxious to go home; whether it was to eagerly go to bed for Santa Claus to come or to stay up and see if they could catch him.

After a few minutes the church cleared out and Freddie loosened his necktie and the first button of his dress shirt as he walked from the pew and into the aisle. He slowly walked down aisle to the altar of the church. He let out a soft breath as he stuck his hands in his suit pants while looking up at the Nativity Scene that the church set up then looked up at the large cross hanging behind the altar.

He thought he'd find some peace tonight and being in this sanctuary, but as with some holidays, they become a reflective time for someone to look at their life and for Freddie Benson, it was no different. His mind inevitably started comparing how this Christmas was so different from the last several Christmases which always involved some special with iCarly and spending some time with Carly, Sam, Spencer and recently Gibby. Dressing up as a flashlight and then having to struggle out of it when Sam ran off down stairs a few Christmases ago wasn't exactly a pleasant memory, but it was a part of the tapestry of his life for good or ill.

He closed his eyes as his mind dragged up memory after memory of how his life went from silent suffering to finally finding peacefulness and contentment starting from when Sam kissed him at the school lock-in to when he turned Sam down at Troubled Waters while Carly was making the case for her friend to get him to date the blonde live on iCarly to meeting with Jade the first day at the workshop in the Black Box Theater to their time together during the workshop to the first time they made love… then how everything spiraled out of control with Carly and Sam showing up and costing him everything he knew, but gained so much more with the people of L.A. and Jade. Bittersweet, summed up his feelings about where he was at this point… perhaps his entire life.

He was pulled out of his reflection at hearing the soft flapping of wings behind his back and wondered if a bird somehow gotten into the church. The next moment a soft voice called from behind his shoulder, "You look troubled."

He turned to see a lovely woman, he guessed in her late twenties, sitting on the first church pew that he could have sworn he had seen empty when he made his way up to the altar and anyone else for that matter in the church already leave. She had red hair similar to Cat's hair color with pale skin and wore a long dark blue coat that reached midway down to her blue jean covered thighs and over a white V-neck shirt.

He gave her a polite smile and answered, "Sorry ma'am, I didn't see you. I thought I was alone."

She let out a soft laugh that seemed to ease the teenager's tension as she spoke, "You are never alone in my Father's house."

He gave her a soft smile and nodded along. "You are quite right ma'am."

She tilted her head slightly to the side as she asked, "Then why the weariness? You look… tired."

Freddie left out a soft chuckle, "I'm just… thinking how I got here… not literally, but how I got to where I'm at right now in my life instead of being where I thought I would be. I couldn't possibly imagine that my life would turn out like this. I never thought I would be living in L.A. and… well it's a long story ma'am."

"Do you regret what you lost?"

The brown eyed teenager's shoulders slumped as this woman presumed that she could just speak to him about something so personal, but with her warm smile and non-threatening demeanor, he didn't throw up his defenses, but honestly answered her with a whisper, "It was my life before this… yes, I do regret what I lost even if it wasn't right and I haven't been happier since I've moved to Los Angeles." He chuckled, "Living in the City of Angels… I think I might be living under the same roof as one."

The redhead laughed at the last comment then gave Freddie a supportive smile and replied with a light conversational tone, "I know it's been a hard long road for you Freddie and that you've lost a great deal of what has defined your life, but good things do happen… as you've experienced while you've been in L.A."

Freddie blinked and put on an apprehensive expression. His mouth dropped open slightly then asked, "Ah… do I know you ma'am?"

The pale redhead gave him a brighter smile and shook her head. "No, but I know you."

Freddie let out a nervous laugh as he realized the obvious. He wore a playful smirk as he asked, "You used to watch me on iCarly?"

She joined him with a soft laugh, "In a way… and you can be very proud of your hard work without worrying about the sin of pride."

He cracked a small smile as he answered, "Thank you… I just wonder at times how many people realize how much I put into it. So many act like I didn't really matter to the show."

"People see… there are plenty of people that see."

"I'm glad to hear," he responded with a thankful tone.

Freddie forced a smile as he watched the lovely woman smile back at him. He felt an awkward silence fall between them, well at least on his side as she appeared calm and relax. He blew out a breath then stated as politely as possible, "I guess I should be going. My mother's probably waiting and I don't want to disturb you."

"You're not disturbing me; far from it and Marissa? She's too busy discussing your spiritual wellbeing for living with the Wests and what she can do about it. She's worried about your soul and thinks you're turning into a deviant from being with Jadelyn and the car you drive. She thinks both have been a terrible influence on you."

Freddie's brow furled and took a slight step backwards.

The redhead laughed softly then continued, "Usually this is Mitch's job, but… he has a conflict of interest when it comes to Carly and he went a little… overboard with his demonstration to her in regards to you last time plus I have experience with dealing with people, so I get the honor of helping you."

Freddie slightly frowned in confusion. He started sputtering as he wasn't sure what question to ask first, "Mitch? Who's Mitch and a conflict of interest over what? What are you talking about?"

She slightly bowed her head and answered, "To help you know if what you believe is true: 'Is it better to be judged for who you are than for someone you're not?'"

The tech producer blinked at her statement and felt a sudden uneasiness at the woman knowing something that he had only told a few people even if she replaced damned with judged. He cautiously asked, "Who are you?"

The redhead gave him a bright smile as she casually answered, "I'm Anna and I am an Angel of the Lord."

Freddie couldn't help but snort out a laugh as the sudden tension he felt was swept away at hearing her answer. He softly questioned trying not to disrespect the woman, "Ma'am, do you really think that's funny to say that in a church and on Christmas Eve?"

She stood up and confidently took a step forward. "It's the truth Freddie. This is my Father's house; I am always welcome in my Father's house."

He swallowed nervously as he tried to figure out what to say not to hurt the woman's feelings as she appeared to believe what she had spoken. His last few months in L.A. showed that there were a lot of unique people in the city that believed in a great number of things. Patience and tolerance had gotten him far when he was out and about the city. She slowly walked around him and he kept a corner of his eye on her as she slowly circled him to stand between him and the Nativity scene with the hanging cross over her right shoulder.

She playfully asked, "You don't believe me?"

Freddie cleared his throat and bowed his head for a moment to gather his words then looked up to see a still smiling face. "I believe in the existence of angels and ah… I've questioned sometimes if a particular person just might be an angel in disguise, but I've never met one, so I'm not sure how I would know one if I saw one… appearing as a human I mean."

Anna let out a soft laugh as she nodded her head. "Jadelyn would be a lovely form for one of my sisters to imitate since… well as Scripture describes our natural form… it can be quite… _terrifying_ for one to behold one of us. I think that's why Mitch chooses the form of a ah… 'Little Person'… a 'person of short statute'… as a way of disarming people's fear and apprehension." She shook her head as she whispered, "Humans and their labels for each other. If only you saw each other as my Father looks at you…" She looked back up at Freddie and her smile returned. "Castiel has been described as a 'Holy Tax Accountant' which throws people off initially and me… I've been told that I chose a pleasing form. What do you think?"

The tech producer was caught off guard with the question, but quickly formed a response, "I think you look very lovely ma'am." He motioned towards her with his head and commented further as he wore a patient smile, "I like the hair. It reminds me of a friend."

She broke into a wide grin as she brushed some behind her left ear and commented, "Thank you." She nodded and continued, "Yes, Caterina… she's such a sweet and lovely girl. I can see why my Dustin would like her… other than him taking after his father in liking redheads."

Freddie frowned at her pulling Cat's name out of the air and somehow knowing about Dusty's feelings for the childlike teenager. He was getting the feeling that he was talking to a stalker similar to Mandy from years ago or as crazy as Nora. His mind raced to try to figure out how she could know the things she was saying as just stalking his Slap page would not tell her such details.

His silence prompted her to continue, "I'm not stalking your Slap page and you're right that looking wouldn't tell me such things."

The brown eyed teenager blinked and swallowed down nervously as the woman apparently just read his mind.

The redhead took a soft breath and continued, "I don't mean to frighten you Freddie into thinking I'm like Mandy or Nora, so…" She trailed off as the sound of thunder started clashing outside and Freddie turned his head to see flashes of lightning outside and the overhead lights begin to darken. "I might as well show you… fear not…"

Anna looked directly into Freddie's eyes as she whispered again with a hint of desperation in her voice, "_Fear not_."

He took a sharp breath as the lights in the church dimmed overhead and his attention was pulled to the lightning suddenly flashing outside the stained glassed windows when it was suppose to be a clear night. The corner of his eyes caught movement from behind Anna and saw that two shadows beginning to form behind her on the wall, but he realized that form was not the proper description. The shadows began to unfurl behind the redhead's back and he realized that the shadows were in the shape of a pair of feathery wings like those of an eagle. He took a step back as he saw a pair of shadow wings extend out in all their glory against the backdrop of the altar and the cross over her right shoulder with one last flash of light.

The brown eyed teenager held his breath and swallowed down the real fear he felt as he met the redhead's eyes.

Anna sympathetically smiled to the teenager as she took a step towards him and softly rest a hand on his shoulder. She commented with a disarming voice meant to comfort the teenager, "I prefer this method in letting people know instead of Mitch's talking card trick. It's far more what people expect and I don't mean to criticize my brother, but his method is a little too Chris Angel for my tastes."

Freddie attempted to clear his throat several times as he looked into her soft eyes.

She slightly nodded her head and answered his unasked question, "Yes Freddie, I'm an angel."

He was finally able to form words and whisper out, "Ah… why? Why are you here?"

Her bright smile returned as she answered, "I told you: I'm here to help you know if you are correct in your belief."

He swallowed the lump forming in his throat and attempted to clear it several times before asking, "Am I wrong? I guess I might be wrong if one of you is showing up."

She smile grew bigger as she dropped her hand away from his shoulder. "My presence isn't a commentary on your belief. It is up to you to decide if you are correct. I'm just here to help you figure it out."

The apprehension was replaced with cautioned curiosity, "How?"

"I've told you it has been a long hard road for you, which you know better than anyone other than my Father… but there is still more of it to travel. You will question if you would whether be judged for who you are soon, but showing you what it would be like for who you believe you are not may help you get through your tribulation and answer that question one last time."

Freddie swallowed nervously as he looked to her kind eyes. He spoke barely above a whisper as he asked, "What's going to happen to me?"

She regretfully shook her head. "I can't tell you, but the choices will be yours… and how you deal with the consequences of those choices."

"Am I going to die… is anyone I love going to die?"

She lifted both of her hands this time and rested them on each of his shoulders. She gave him a sympathetic look as she answered, "Freewill has its consequences… I can't say anymore."

He nodded along and put on a stoic expression. His voice calm and steady with a hint of steel behind it, "I nearly died one time for one of my choices—"

The redheaded angel slightly shook her head, "And you were so very brave and I'm glad I've been given the chance to tell you."

Freddie swallowed again then asked hesitantly, "So how are you going to show me? Assuming you're not really a Fallen Angel? If angels exist then demons have to exist and I have seen plenty of people act kindly just to stab me in the back."

Anna smiled as she recited, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves…" She stepped from him and walked around the Nativity scene to look to the hanging cross. She gently placed her right hand on it and nothing happened. She dropped her hand away and looked over her left shoulder to the apprehensive teenager.

"Okay… I guess you're an angel. So… where do we begin?"

The redhead walked back to him and met his eyes. "With the first step." She raised her right hand as a fist then extended her pointer and middle finger to gently press to his forehead. The next moment he suddenly felt nauseous and his vision blur as his surroundings seemed to cease to exist then suddenly replaced with a different scene. Freddie took in a sharp breath as he steadied himself on his feet.

"Sorry, it can be a little disorienting the very first time… especially with how far we had to go."

He nodded accepting her apology then glanced around and saw that he was in the hallway between his apartment and the Shay's apartment. He looked to Anna with a curious expression. He asked the unneeded question as he already knew the answer to the first one, "We're in Seattle? Why are we here?"

"This is where you're going to find out, but it's not Seattle, Seattle, but another one."

He slightly frowned as he asked, "Another one?"

"The one where you decided to say yes to Sam in Troubled Waters then broke up about month later. I'll leave it up to you to find out how things turned out afterwards."

Freddie slightly frowned as he studied the angel to see if she was serious. "Damned for who I am not…"

The pale angel whispered sadly, "As you would phrase it."

He nodded along then asked, "Is that the only difference? Dating Sam? How's Jade? You have to answer me about Jade or I'll find someway to talk to her and find out myself."

Anna lifted a corner of her mouth and answered, "Dating or not dating Sam would eventually lead to what you refer to as the 'Butterfly Effect' to events which is the point of you seeing the differences, but in regards to the Jade here? She and Beck are still together, but…"

Freddie snapped in concern as he was instantly filled with dread. "But what?"

"This pair is just putting off for a little longer than what happened with your Jade and Beck. They didn't break up after the prom, but they won't last much longer as a couple. They still have all the same problems and equally refuse to face them."

His shoulders slumped as he looked away and a deep frown formed on his face.

Anna didn't read his soul this time, but she could tell from her experience with humans that just from the look on the teenager's face and the ways his eyes were darting back and forth that he was hurting that this Jade was going to go through the same heartbreak that his Jade went though after breaking up with Beck and thinking on something deeply. She briefly wondered how he would handle that feeling along with seeing this world.

She raised a hand and softly gripped his left arm. "I'll leave you to your… excursion."

He looked up to meet her eyes as she pulled him out of whatever thought process he was in the middle of contemplating.

She raised her hand off his arm and softly rested it on his shoulder and smiled warmly as she finished, "Don't worry, I won't be far."

He gave a nod of his head then turned to face the door to the Shay apartment. As he lifted his hand to know on the door, he heard the soft flapping of wings behind him just before he saw the angel the first time. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the redhead was gone. He slightly shook his head then looked back to the door and softly knocked on the wood.

"It's open," he heard Carly's voice come somewhere inside the apartment and through the door. He opened the door and cautiously walked into the apartment. He glanced around out of instinct to see if anything was different from his version of the apartment. It was a surreal sensation running through him as he saw the various phones and familiar knickknacks in the eccentrically decorated apartment as this wasn't the apartment he had left behind for L.A., but one where he was an everyday visitor and everything was like it was before Sam kissed him. Other than that profound difference, it really didn't look any different other than the Christmas decorations. The differences were only in his heart.

His eyes finally met the brunette's eyes as she sat on the couch. "Hi." In the brief moment before she answered he just looked at the brunette. She looked exactly like his Carly, but there was something he immediately noticed as she softly laughed out, "Hey, you look pretty sharp," the full shine in her eyes that he hadn't scene since he left Seattle.

It was nearly overwhelming as he had only scene pieces of it on the occasions he had seen her in person as when she was on iCarly it was gone (except the time he was behind the camera watching an iCarly broadcast during his first visit back), so he looked down with the excuse that he was seeing what she meant with the suit he was wearing. He cleared his throat then looked up to answer, "Thanks."

Carly's brow slightly furled as she saw the teenager. "You're welcome. But what are you doing here? I thought you were with your mom at church?"

Freddie rubbed the back of his neck and nervously laughed out, "I was, but I… she wanted to stay for a little bit and talk to the pastor."

Her eyes darted back and forth a few times then asked, "Then how did you get back here?"

Freddie snorted out a laugh and answered, "Would you believe me if I told you an angel dropped me off?"

Carly laughed, "Was his name Mitch?"

Freddie's eyes shot open at the name as Carly apparently was aware of the apparent angel Mitch, but quickly recovered, "Anna actually… lovely redhead with nearly the same color as Cat's hair. She looked just a little younger than Spencer… but who's Mitch?"

The web-hostess looked away and shook her head as he instantly saw the embarrassment on her face at thinking she revealed too much. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

He countered with a confident tone, "You'd be surprised what I would believe."

Carly slightly tilted her head as she curiously examined her friend then laughed out nervously, "Never mind."

Freddie bowed his head to break looking at the gaze she was giving him and walked around the front of the coffee table and towards the Christmas tree. He idly pointed over to the decorated Christmas tree sitting just to the left of the kitchen counter separating the kitchen and living room, but left enough room for the Shays to walk into the kitchen from that direction. "A real tree this year?"

A corner of the brunette's mouth lifted and she gave him a curious expression as she answered and walked up beside him, "Yeah, but you already knew that. You helped decorate it."

He cleared his throat and answered, "Right, I helped you decorate it."

She softly put a hand on his bicep and asked with a concerned tone, "Are you alright?"

He snapped his head and met her eyes again. "I'm fine, just a little tired. I guess I'm getting a little too excited about Christmas and it's catching up with me."

"Oh, okay. Would you like something to drink? You could grab a snack?"

He looked her directly in the eyes and innocent face of a girl that had not experienced what his Carly experienced about losing him. There was no heartache or suffering or anger or regret, just the sweet girl that he had fallen in love with at eleven years old. He guessed this was the chance he was given to experience what he had left behind, the good part and at least for a little while have his life back, but apparently with no Sam at the moment to torment him and the brunette to stand by and watch. He realized that this was a strange combination of the scenario Lane had discussed with him: to have it all back, to have his life back, but still the mixture of his old life with Sam hanging in the background… all he had to do was bow and forget his mean girl.

So he gave her the most logical answer for him, "No thanks, I think I'll just crash in my room for a quick nap. I just wanted to stop by and say hi and Merry Christmas."

She blinked and cautiously commented, "Okay?"

He gave her a quick nod of his head then turned and headed back to the door. He glanced over his shoulder as he reached of the door handle, "I'll see you sometime tomorrow."

The brunette's brow furled as she watched the young man exit her apartment and wondered what just happened.

* * *

><p>Freddie quickly pulled the Shay door closed behind him and took in a soft breath hoping that the other Freddie was still with this place's Mrs. Benson or she would be in a panic trying to figure out his location especially when she realized that she couldn't track him from the locator chip. He pulled out his keys and hoped that his keys were identical to the ones here and would fit the lock. He was answered with the lock unlocking and he was able to open the door. He quickly entered and shut the door behind him and locked it.<p>

He didn't bother turning on any lights as even after months he remembered how orderly the house was arranged and that he could navigate through the home towards him old room. Whether or not T-Bo was renting a room from his mother was a mute point to him for the time being as he passed the guest bedroom and noticed that no light was on in the room. He reached his room and cautiously opened the door.

He flipped the light switch on and slightly shivered at seeing how the room was exactly how it was before he had packed up his room to move to Los Angeles. The tech producer took a deep breath and focused his mind on exactly how he was going to go about accomplishing his goal in the very little time he guessed he had in this place and assuming it was real. Anna may have given him a brief chance to experience his old life to figure out if he really thought his belief about himself was correct and it may have been pride on his part in thinking he knew better than an angel, but didn't have any doubts about his belief and he didn't think anything in the future could shake that belief… _pride comes before the fall_… so he was going to take this opportunity to do something else.

He shut his door behind him and saw that there wasn't any lock on the door since his mother didn't believe he should be able to lock his own door. He snorted dismissively and went over to his closet to find an extra pair of sneakers. He slipped his loafers off of his feet and stepped into the shoes then headed towards his dresser by the door. He walked to the side opposite from the door and gave a good shove to the dresser and forced the piece of furniture to slide in front of the door.

He smiled to himself as he stood up and stepped away from the dresser drawers. He had no intention of being interrupted with what he was planning. He spared a glance over to the bed and wondered if he should attempt to slide the bed as well against the dresser. He quickly disregarded the idea as short of Sam, the others would have trouble getting through until after he was done and that was assuming this Freddie and his mother would be back before he was finished.

He slipped his hand into his pocket and felt his PearPhone and pulled out the pear shaped phone. He quickly placed it on his desk and took a seat on the stool in front of his computer desk and booted up his machine. He tapped his fingers on the desk as he impatiently waited for the machine to come to life. Once the machine finished booting, he quickly opened a web-browsing window and went to this Freddie's Pear account (and remembering his old login and password) and typed off a quick text message. He read over is several times to see that it was concise, but got across his urgency then sent off the message. As he didn't know who would have his phone number in this world, he went with that method to send off a message as one of the first things he did after moving to L.A. was to change his phone number.

Now he had to wait, but he wouldn't be doing it idly. He opened a chat window box and quickly typed in the screen name he was looking for. His screen showed that the person was not online, but that didn't matter to him at the moment as the turned slightly in his seat to open up a drawer that he knew he kept his USB cable to his phone before he moved. The cable was in the drawer and he calmly hooked one end of the cable into his phone and the other into his computer.

His fingers typed away and moved his mouse to copy a video and several photos off of his phone into this Freddie's computer. He opened another window and went to the iCarly site and accessed the server to upload the video. As the video was being uploaded to the secure side of the server, he opened up another window and immediately started typing up an e-mail as quickly as possible. He knew he didn't have time to say all that he needed to say because it would take too long, but wrote enough to hit all the highlights to get his message across. As he was wrapping up his e-mail and video uploading, a ping indicated that the person he intended to video chat was online.

He hit the send button on his e-mail then accepted the request from ScissorLuv and the window opened to show Jade's curious expressed face. He paused in saying anything as he saw her lovely face being framed with her dark locks and green streaks. She paused for a moment as well as she was assessing his expression towards her, but started a few seconds later, "Hey, ah I got your text? This is a surprise Freddie, especially on Christmas. What's going on?"

He gave her a warm smile even as he fumbled with his words, "Yeah, well… I needed to talk to you. It's… it's very important."

She slightly turned her head as she looked to the camera and slowly asked, "Okay, what's going on?"

"You're probably not going to believe me what I'm going to say at first, but… I need you to take a little bit of a leap of faith with me for at least the next few minutes."

She slightly shook her head and gave a slightly apologetic smile as she answered, "Look, I don't have much faith Fredd—"

"I know, I know; you think you don't have one decent friend you can count on, but you can count on me for the next few minutes and I'm going to back up my words."

She blinked at his challenge and didn't give her a chance to speak as he pushed on as he felt his time was limited, "I'm going to help you _not_ break up with Beck."

That caught her attention as she frowned and her brow furled. "What? Where did you hear I was going to break up with Beck?"

He ignored her question and asked, "You two are fighting all the time now aren't you? You get jealous with every girl that looks at him, some of it is justified, but some of it isn't, but instead of reassuring you, he plays on your insecurities and never puts a stop to the girls flirting with him. You're the one that has to say something to them and suddenly you're the bad one if you show any sign of jealousy. You're terrified that Tori is going to take Beck away from you and he doesn't do a thing to reassure you otherwise. He thinks you are too mean… but let's face it you are at times, but there are plenty of times that your anger is justified, but he emotionally guilt trips you to get you to behave and sometimes talks down to you as if you're a child and finally, he doesn't listen to you."

Freddie had to take several breaths after letting his stream of thought just go where it needed to go out of instinct.

Jade leaned back in her chair and looked to the tech producer with complete shock on her face. She made an audible swallow and stuttered several times before she could finally respond, "How… how could you possibly know that?"

His shoulders slump and he closed his eyes with a soft shake of his head. "Am I right?"

She swallowed down her apprehension then put a look of mild annoyance on her face. "I want to know how you know that."

His eyes met harsh bluish/green eyes, but since he knew what was underneath, he wasn't intimidated in the least.

His silence apparently got to the pale screenwriter as she shouted, "HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?"

Freddie remained silent for a moment so Jade could let her anger simmer down. He bowed his head slightly and asked with a regretful tone, "So I am right? I'm so sorry Jade."

The brown eyed teenager's reply was apparently not enough for her as she snapped back, "If you're so sorry, then why did you bring it up? Why text me out of the blue? You want to rub it in that I'm having problems? You broke up with Sam and you want someone else to hurt with you?"

Freddie straightened up in his seat and took a quick breath.

The pale actress wore a smirk as she continued, "Yeah, everyone knows you dated Sam—"

He slightly frowned and retorted with a sharp tone, "I don't know why _he_ would date someone that beats him like a dog and makes his life a living Hell just so she could get off and makes sure to tell him that she _HATES_ him on a daily basis. I don't know why he would do such a thing other than maybe he's crazy, but quite frankly, I don't care at this moment why or about his life. The only one I care about at this moment is _you _and your happiness."

Jade blinked from the response and leaned slightly back in her leather chair as the statement and the tone caught her off guard.

Freddie didn't give her the chance to form a response as he pushed on, "I want you and Beck to face your problems and deal with them instead of pretending they aren't there before one of you has enough and breaks it off. I don't want you to go through that heartbreak because I know you love him and there is still a chance to address each other's problems before it's too late."

Her brow furled an her eyes squinted in the way he was familiar with when she was completely confused about something as she desperately asked, "Why do you care? You barely know me—"

Her words 'Why do you care?' struck him in his heart… in his very soul as hard as when the taco truck hit his body. His soul responded in the only way it knew how to her words and forced the body to speak and interrupted the dark brunette before she could go on with her rant or even before he realized what he was saying, "Because I love you!"

His words silenced Jade in an instant as she mouth stopped midway and hung open and she just looked at him with a shocked expression.

The tech producer bowed his head and let out a relieved breath as he realized what he had spoken to this Jade, but it made complete sense to him. He had only said that to one girl in his life in that manner, but now he had finally found that they were the words to tell Jade how he truly felt about her. He had found the words. After a few moments, he lifted his head and continued, "I love _my_ Jade… I love her…" Freddie typed in a chatbox then looked back to Jade's displaying face. "I'm sending you a link so you can watch something private off the iCarly server."

The pale actress continued to look at his dumbfounded for a moment as his words had pierced even her shell as only Beck had used those words to her in that manner and meaning and for some reason she completely believed Freddie… and had no clue how to respond even if he wasn't making sense about talking about another Freddie.

He whispered a little louder to catch her attention, "Please just look at the video… you'll have a lot of questions, but they'll get answered along with helping me explain why I just said what I said to you."

Her mouth moved several times before she whispered out, "Okay." She slightly shook her head then broke eye contact with him to look at the message box displaying on her screen. She tapped the link and a few moments later the video started playing.

He could hear the feedback of the video playing on her end and he immediately saw the look of confusion on her pale face. The next few moments stretched into a minute and she blinked as he could see her reaction on his screen from seeing the video. She looked at for a few more moments then whispered, "This isn't possible… that's—"

He interrupted, "That's my Jade as Snow White performing in a play that she wrote about two months ago and that Sinjin and I filmed. She told me during the summer that she got sick of Tori constantly getting parts over her like Steamboat Suzy and I told her the story of how iCarly got started and suggested she do the same thing: make her own opportunity to perform and get recognition and not depend on the school for parts." He took another breath and smiled as he thought on what he was saying to her, "She took my advice after school started back and we filmed that one weekend and put it on-line. She's got a pretty big fan following now and she's working on another one, but she's keeping it secret for the moment."

She still looked completely lost as her attention was torn between the video still playing on her screen and him.

The tech producer softly shook his head. "There is no way in the world that I could fake that video."

She looked back up and put on an even expression, but her eyes told him that she was completely bewildered and hopelessly confused at what she was watching. She whispered in a hollow tone, "Who are you?"

He bowed his head slightly and broke eye contact with the pale teenager. He took a deep breath and looked up to meet her eyes again. He confidently replied, "I'm… I'm the Freddie that said no to dating Sam and was saved by a Jade that broke up with Beck a week after Hollywood Arts' prom. This Freddie has already made his choice and went through his relationship with Sam, but you don't have to go through what my Jade went through… if you'll just face your problems with him, you have a chance to save what you have. I am telling you this because I love my Jade and you are literally her where different choices were made."

She shook her head and refused to look at him on the other side of the screen.

He desperately whispered as he realized that it was too much for her to accept at one time, but knew he had to try, "Jade, I know it's unbelievable, but… I just need you to listen to what I've said."

She remained silent for a few minutes as she divided her attention to the playing video and glancing at him. She finally whispered as she looked directly at him, "How is this possible?"

He took a quick breath then answered, "An angel dropped me off to see how my life would be like if I had said yes to Sam, but as curious as I might be to see it for curiosity's sake, helping you was far more important than whatever lesson I'm suppose to learn in my life from being here for a little while. You could say I'm skipping the lesson to hang out with the pretty girl."

The dark haired teenager looked down at her keyboard on her PearBook and took several shallow breaths. She finally whispered just above the background of the video still playing, "So… in your life we're…"

"Together?"

She gave a brief nod as she met his eyes for a moment.

"Yes… we have been together since late July."

That spark of life Freddie had grown accustomed in seeing in Jade's eyes flickered back and asked with an urgent voice, "How? How did that happen?"

He slightly shook his head. "I'm not sure how much time I have, so I'll hit the highlights: I said no to Sam, but Carly wouldn't accept it and just kept pushing. I finally had enough and left Seattle for the summer to do the 'Summer in Film' workshop at Hollywood Arts. I ran into you at the workshop while Tori, André, Beck and the rest went to Yerba. You were the only one I really knew except Sinjin and you didn't want to hang out with anyone else, so we stuck by each other during the month long workshop. We became really good friends during that time in between having to arrange a rescue for everyone out of Yerba after—"

Jade interrupted in disgust, "Tori got us all arrested."

A chill went up Freddie's spine thinking about Jade being in that prison and of all the horrible things that could have happened while she was in it, but he pushed that aside to continue, "Yeah… anyway during that time we kind of… ah… developed feelings for one another and by the third week we admitted that we cared about each other… as in more than friends. The next morning after our mutual confessions, Carly and Sam finally tracked me down. We argued about the same thing again and I thought they had left to go back to Seattle. I was wrong because when we came back to the hotel room that the workshop was renting for me that night, we found them waiting for us with Sam breaking in." Freddie took another deep breath and continued, "We argued again and Sam nearly tore my arm out of my socket and nearly gave me a concussion in one throw. You jumped Sam and scarred up her face and broke a few of her ribs after she threw me on the ground. You took me to the hospital then…"

A part of Jade may have thought he was out of his mind or a great writer with the story he was telling, but for the most part she was completely enamored in listening to his story, "Then what?"

He shrugged a shoulder and calmly answered, "While we were there, you begged me not to go back to Seattle because you knew that my life there was basically Hell. Your mom offered me one of the bedrooms to stay, so I stayed. My room is the one at the end of the hallway from yours. We've been together ever since and I go to Hollywood Arts. We even share Sikowitz's class since you know… I have more acting experience than most of you."

Jade took several breaths as she looked back at him trying to process all that he had told her. She finally whispered out, "You know that's kind of unbelievable."

The tech producer shook his head then answered, "You've seen the video and I have plenty of photos of us together over the months on my phone that I can show you. I particularly love the one as you as an angel during the Halloween dance at school. Do you want me to show you? I even have part of your song you recorded for André as my ring tone."

She smirked and retorted with a disbelieving voice, "You do not have me dressed up as an…" She trailed off and her jaw dropped as he held up his phone to the webcam and could see the picture of her and Freddie standing together with him as Fredward Cullen and her in a white dress with a silver halo and wings on her back.

"There is no way I could Photoshop that picture." He pulled the phone away from the camera and quickly thumbed to a particular photo. He held his phone up again and showed her another picture of them together. "But this one has to be my favorite one. It's the one I took of us together during the first day of the workshop. You told me you wouldn't smile, but I can see that faint one of yours you put on and don't think I can see."

The dark brunette swallowed as she looked of the photo of Freddie smiling, but her wearing a stoic expression. However, she could see her faint smile and she knew that she was happy to be in the picture.

She took several deep breaths to calm her nerves then asked with a serious tone, "If everything you have said is true… then why do you want to help me stay with Beck. Shouldn't you want me to break up with him and get with… ah the Freddie here?"

The brown eyed teenager shook his head. "No… you love Beck and ironically I'm the only one of your friends that truly understands that because I know what that means because I loved Carly the same way… it's how you understand and never made light of my feelings for Carly because you understand what 'I love you' means. I've watched you be heartbroken once… I don't want to know that you will have to go through that again if you can avoid it."

Jade paused once more as she took in his words. She spoke again after another few seconds of silence, "Do I love you?"

He gave her a sad smile as he replied, "We can't say those words to one another because we're still healing over both our heartbreaks. Just as I said, we know the meaning of those words far more than our friends, so we don't just throw them around like everyone else, but we care about each other very much. I know you care about me… as Dusty put it in words: 'You're the one that gripped me tight and raised me from Perdition' and stood by my side ever since. You may wish for a friend that you can count on, but you are one to be counted on."

The green streaked haired teenager sucked in a sharp breath. She slowly let it out then blinked then asked with confusion, "But you just said it to me. You said you love me."

He cracked a smile as he answered, "That's the first time I've been able to say it. I can finally say it and mean it. I guess I needed a kick from you to finally found the words… now I have to tell my Jade when I get back. Thank you."

The pale actress gave a nod to him and a faint smile as she was trying to process that someone was having that much trust and faith in her.

Freddie turned his head as he heard someone push against the door.

"Who's in there?" he heard his voice shout out from the other side of the door.

He snapped back to look at the monitor and smiled wearily at the dark brunette. "It looks like my time is up and I have to go… please take care of yourself Jade. Oh, and more thing."

The dark brunette questioned, "Yeah?"

He looked her dead in the eye and spoke with absolute conviction, "Don't make Ian pay for your father's sins. It's not his fault. He's a child and innocent in the whole thing. He'll love you if you give him the chance. Give him that chance Jade."

Jade took a soft breath as she studied his face then nodded her head. "Okay I will… Freddie?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks… and… treat me right."

He grinned widely as he answered, "I'd rather cut my heart out with a rusty spoon than to do otherwise."

She raised her pierced eyebrow and slightly frowned.

"An inside joke with my Jade during our time at the workshop… that I'd rather do that than make her think that I didn't genuinely care about her."

She nodded her head with an understanding smile.

He snapped his fingers and realized one last thing. "Download the video off the iCarly server. I'll keep it open for you as long as I can. Maybe you'll write a script from it and make your version of it. People will love it; just make sure you cast Ava as the Wicked Queen and get some kids from the preschool next to Hollywood Arts. She's fantastic."

"Okay… thanks again Freddie… for everything. Bye."

"Bye," he bid farewell to his girl in another life.

He turned the webcam off then detached his phone from the computer and slip it back in is pocket. He slipped off the sneakers and back into his loafers then turned to the door. He heard Sam shouting from the other side, "I'm going to kick the door down!" He heard his counterpart start to argue with the blonde on the other side of the door. He took the opportunity to push aside the dresser even in his loafers then opened the door.

Freddie smiled as he saw the shocked faces of Carly, Sam, Freddie and his mother looking at him. His voice suddenly filled with laughter as he greeted them, "Hello."

They quartet were all dumbfounded for a moment until the other Freddie whispered, "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" Freddie smirked as he took a step and looked his alternate straight in the eyes. "I'm you."

"You're me?" he asked with a higher than normal pitched voice.

Freddie suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of amusement with the situation however wrong it was for feeling that way. "More accurately, I'm you that made the other choice… the choice in saying no to Sam when she said she liked me and Carly was trying to convince me to give her a chance. I'm the one who would rather be damned for who I am than for someone I'm not… as I wouldn't give up integrity simply to satisfy everyone else's wants in dating a girl that's brought me nothing but pain and suffering. That is who I am."

The trio looked at him dumbfounded with that answer. They were gathering their thoughts as to obvious say that he was nuts, Mrs. Benson spoke up with nearly a shout, "You never dated Sam?"

The brown eyed teenager shook his head and smirked at this Mrs. Benson. "Nope. Never got into one with her. I would have to be absolutely _nuts_ to do such a thing."

Marissa was grinning ear to ear at his answer even if he wasn't really her son by this point in time.

Carly spoke up, "Hey, Sam has her good qualities. She's just like—"

He frowned at her and snapped, "Don't give me the monkey speech Carly. I've already heard it once from my Carly and I don't want to hear it a second time. It was a bunch of chizz then and it's still a bunch of chizz now. Stop making excuses for her and letting her get by with chizz just because you love her. You're not doing her any favors in life by covering for her."

The brunette blinked at being cutoff and talk to so harshly by someone wearing Freddie's face.

Mrs. Benson curiously asked, "Chizz?"

He spared her a quick glance and flippantly answered, "Shit mother. Chizz means shit."

Marissa admonished him with an outcry, "Watch you language—"

Freddie cut her off as he was not in the mood to listen to a lecture from her especially since she was pseudo his mother, "You're the one that asked me to define it. If you're going to get upset, get upset at yourself."

The Benson matriarch's eyes shot open from being spoken in such a way and silenced her for a few moments.

Sam didn't look too happy as she glanced to her Freddie and commented, "No, really who are you?"

He looked back to her with mild disgust on his face and answered, "I'll clear it up for you Sam: an angel dropped me off to see how my life would have been like if I would have said yes to you and to find out if I was happy with my decision to say no." He looked to Carly and assured her with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, "No Carly, it wasn't Mitch. I understand he did some kind of demonstration for you one time that you didn't tell us about."

Carly swallowed down as she got the message loud and clear while her friends looked to her with a mixture of curiosity and accusation on their faces. The brunette ignored them and focused back on him. "But you didn't do that; you came back here instead of hanging out with me."

Freddie shrugged a shoulder. "I had more important things to do than to second guess my decision not to date that she-demon."

The dirty blonde frowned at the insult and by the look on her face she was loosing her patience with this other Freddie.

The other Freddie asked curiously, "And what was that?"

"I was talking to my girlfriend… well, she's not my girlfriend here obviously, but I still needed to talk to her and send off an e-mail." He looked to Freddie and finished, "I used our account to send the e-mail just to let you know."

Carly was the first one to speak, "Your girlfriend?

He smirked in response with his answer, "Yes my girlfriend. I had to talk to her about something important, so I did."

Mrs. Benson shouted, "Who's your girlfriend?"

Freddie gave the woman a patient smile with his answer, "That would be telling."

Sam snapped, "You're just making it up. What girl would date you?"

"You mean other than you?" he snapped back with a tone that showed his disgust for the stupidity of her question.

The blonde frowned and took a step forward. "You need to watch it."

"Or what? You'll hit me?" He nodded his head to the other Freddie. "He may not hit you and Carly will not defend me, but I certainly will hit you."

"Oh? You think you can—" She paused when she saw a strange look in his eyes that she had never seen in her Freddie's eyes: the lack of fear. She swallowed as she couldn't fathom that he wouldn't be afraid of her at some level. She took a step back without thinking.

Carly and Freddie looked surprised with the blonde backing down.

He looked back to the Freddie that said yes to Sam and continued, "You can do far better than her and to show you that you can, I did you a favor."

The other brown eyed teenager slightly bowed his head and asked, "A favor?"

"Yes, you will not be tormented any longer by Sam. You are going to see what it is like for your life not to be made miserable by Sam and see that that we were wrong in thinking that it wouldn't be weird if she stopped, but actually it is quite wonderful. Oh life is so much better without someone always getting away with hurting you and actually having friends that really care about you… you have to find those on your own though, but I do suggest that you start looking in Los Angeles at a particular performing arts high school."

Sam laughed as she spoke up, "And how are you going to pull that off? You, him, whatever couldn't stop me before."

The native Freddie snapped his head and frowned as he looked to his ex-girlfriend.

The Angeleno laughed as he answered, "Easy, I sent an e-mail to Colonel Shay."

Carly's brow furled as she asked with a slightly higher pitch than normal, "My dad? Why would you send him an e-mail?"

He tilted his head slightly to the side and answered, "To tell him as much as I could about how Sam has treated me over the years and you doing nothing to stop it, especially after saving you from the taco truck and walking away from our relationship because I loved you and didn't want to take advantage of any misplaced feelings. Since he's just like the one from where I'm from… he's going to be very _upset_ at what you've allowed to happen to me and he will stop Sam. You are going to be in some _big_ trouble with him just to forewarn you. I wonder if he'll send _you_ to the Dorfmans for a few weeks to get you away from Sam like he did my Carly when he found out. I understand it was a very positive experience for you… you found it as a way to reconnect with your mother."

Carly's mouth dropped open and stared at him in shock at him suggesting that her father would punish her then just as quickly intrigued that he brought up the idea of connecting with her late mother in some way.

Sam dismissively retorted, "Carly's dad isn't going to do anything—"

Freddie smirked and looked the dirty blonde in the eye and whispered, "I'm paraphrasing what he said, 'If Sam wants to go to Hell that's her business, but she's not dragging my daughter down with her'. He'll try to salvage you, but make no mistake he will not do it at the expense of his daughter."

Sam blinked and looked to him with a rare look of surprise.

He laughed out as he let go of a relieved breath, "That wasn't as emotionally draining as usual. I guess it was because I really didn't have the same argument with you a third or forth time." He looked to the other path traveled Freddie and asked curiously, "Why did you say yes to Sam? Just out of curiosity?"

The iCarly Tech-Producer looked to his ex-girlfriend who glared at him to not answer.

"Don't be afraid of her. You should never be afraid of someone that claimed to like you or maybe even love you."

His words gave the other Freddie enough courage to answer, "The kiss was intense… and fun."

"You thought that was fun?" he asked his counterpart as he wore a completely surprised expression. He shook his head and mumbled, "I don't remember my taste being that bad."

"HEY!" Sam shouted outraged.

Freddie snorted right back to her, "You just grabbed me and planted a kiss on me. Girls are allowed to slap guys for stunts like that." He looked back to his counter part and asked with a little offense in his voice, "So you went into it so you could make out with her? Where did our dignity go? Okay, we think girls are hot, but we don't go into relationships with them specifically for that."

He looked down at the floor embarrassed by being admonished. Carly even gave her friend a sympathetic expression.

The former Seattleite shook his head and raised his hands. He spoke with a tired voice, "You know what? I don't care. If you were happy with your choice that's on you, but I'm glad I made my choice. I may have lost everything in saying no, but at least I'm not living a lie anymore about who really cares about me and my life being fine living that way. _I'm happy with my life_."

Freddie waited for a moment for any of them to respond but after a moment realized that none of them were moving as in not breathing either. They were completely frozen in place and realized how quiet it was in the room. He took in a sharp breath and glanced around to notice that even the analog clock on the wall was frozen in mid-tic.

He felt a soft hand on his right shoulder and turned his head to see Anna's smiling face. "Hey."

The Seattleite cleared his throat and whispered back, "Hi." He took a quick breath and looked around and saw that he was back in the church in L.A. as if he never left.

The redheaded angel's hand slipped away from his shoulder. "What you did wasn't exactly what I expected you to do. I didn't think you would take such ah… active role? Carly didn't until that last minute with Mitch."

He smirked as he parroted back from her earlier statement, "Freewill has its consequences… I had my own priorities… I guess I went to Tarshish instead of Nineveh." He gave a slight bow of his head towards her and asked, "So I guess I failed the lesson?"

She grinned at him then laughed warmly, "Changed the condition of the lesson I would say and you sound like you realize you're comfortable with your decision even if you chose not to experience your old life again."

He gave a bashful smile as he replied, "I'm at peace with my decision… I don't think I will ever be comfortable with it."

Anna gave him a reassuring smile. "Okay."

"Anna? Was that real?"

"Yes, it was real. What you experience was quite real."

He took a soft breath and swallowed down his apprehension then asked, "Did I make a difference?"

She answered with a cryptic smile.

The L.A. immigrant shook his head and let a small smile play on his face. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Yes, but I don't know if I can answer it."

"Fair enough… what's the deal with Mitch and Carly?"

Anna glanced down at their feet for a moment then hesitantly answered, "Mitch… showed Carly a few Christmases ago what would happen if Spencer was born 'normal' and how that would have changed her life. She wished it after their electro-magnetic tree caught on fire and burned up their presents. It was to show her to be grateful for the way her brother just the way he was."

Freddie nodded along then he narrowed his eyes on her and asked, "If he's done this before, why not show up for me? What was that about you saying he went overboard with me?"

She looked to his eyes, but he could see her apprehension as much as if she was human as she answered, "To make the world look exactly the way he wanted, he did have to alter a few things than just Spencer being 'normal'."

He was growing concern with her story, "In regards to me?"

"He kind of altered your soul to complete the scenario."

Freddie looked to her with complete shock on his face and asked with equal disbelief, "He did what to me?"

"He made you get over Carly when you were fourteen and it caused you to date someone else in Seattle. He didn't fix it all initially when he switched Carly back. That's why you were so dismissive about Carly crying outside the studio when you found her during the Christmas of o-eight and more concerned about a segment of the show."

Freddie frowned as he remembered the incident just before she hugged him and insisted that Spencer keep his magnetic tree. He could never figure out what came over him for doing such a thing of being so heartless to the girl that he loved as she was crying out in the hallway instead of kneeling down to her and holding her and trying to figure out why she was crying. He softly growled out, "You can do that?"

Anna cleared her throat as if even she was frightened at his reaction or further reaction. "Physically yes, but to play with your soul like that… it's quite wrong."

"You angels are playing with me like some damn toy! What the Hell are the demons doing to me then?"

Anna shook her head. "No we are not doing that to you and my Fallen brothers and sisters are not doing that either."

"Just him?"

The redheaded angel remained silent for a moment, but Freddie continued with a harsh tone and cold stare, "He played with my very being… more than any person has ever toyed with me and I want something in return for what he did to me."

She slightly frowned that he would make such a demand, but as he gave her a confident stare she glanced into his soul again and smiled at what she saw. "That is easily arranged… I think that is very nice Christmas present to them… time for some Christmas miracles," she finished with a laugh, "My Father always loves Christmas Miracles."

Freddie waited in silence for a moment as Anna stood there then opened her arms and spoke, "Done. Some are going to be quite surprised in the morning."

The former Seattleite cracked a small smile as he was surprised how easy it was to get her to fulfill his demand for atonement for what Mitch did to him then nodded his head and choked out, "All of them?"

She gave a slight bow of her head then answered with a playful tone, "Yes all of them except for one you forgot and I don't mean Robbie since you don't know about that."

He slightly frowned as asked curiously, "I forgot? Who did I forget?"

Her mouth broke into a wide grin as she lifted her hand again and touched his forehead the same way she did to send him on his journey and he felt a warm sensation spread throughout his body from his forehead and felt warmth particularly in his right hand and wrist and his left leg. She pulled her fingers away from his forehead then turned her hand over and opened up her ring and pinky finger to present her open palm, but surprisingly her hand was not empty. Several pristine silver screws rested in her hand and she smiled at the tech producer.

He blinked as he looked at the pieces of metal then looked up at her with a confused expression.

She beamed a warm smile as she answered, "My Christmas present to you."

He looked up and softly asked with a hint of fear in his voice, "Are these—"

"The ones in your leg? Yes, you don't need them anymore or…" She reached in her left coat pocket then pulled out a rolled piece of metal and finished, "Or this anymore."

He cautiously took the screws out of her hand and examined them. He instantly recognized that they were the same kind the doctor had shown him when he was told that they had to put them in to help reset his bone after being hit by the taco truck. His left hand shot down to his left leg and rubbed it up and down a few moments. He consciously knew that he couldn't feel whether the screws were still in his bone or the plate was still set around another part, but… he pulled up his pants leg then ran his hand over his leg again and realized that the incision scar was gone.

Anna's fingertips slipped under his chin to lift his head to meet her eyes then leaned in to kiss him on the forehead. She smiled at him and whispered, "You are a good man Freddie Benson… remember that. Remember that in the days ahead and Merry Christmas."

Freddie blinked after she spoke, but between blinks she vanished with the only sign that she had been there was the soft flapping of wings. He took several calm breaths then looked back up the cross and stared at the symbol that embodied his faith for a few moments. He cracked a smile and whispered, "I will and Merry Christmas Anna."

Harris Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<p>

André yawned as he walked into the kitchen. He thought he was the first one up for Christmas morning, but the sound and smell of someone cooking in the kitchen dashed that thought. As he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, he realized that his grandmother was standing at the stove fixing breakfast. The family had convinced her to spend Christmas with them instead of going over to her house as traditionally they would due to her aversion of leaving her house. The songsmith asked with concern as his grandmother rarely cooked anymore on the stove, "Grandma?"

She turned her head as she held a frying pan in her hand as she slowly circled the pan over the burner. She smiled at her grandson and answered, "Hey André?"

"What are you doing?"

She laughed and stated the obvious, "I'm cooking Christmas breakfast for all of you before I head to Sunday service." She shook her head with regret and commented, "I haven't been in years what? Seven? Eight years? For too long."

She glanced at the digital clock and the minute digit changed over to the next minute. André worried that she'd have a bad reaction as she did last time in her own home when she saw the clock change over to the next minute, especially while she was holding a hot frying pan. "Oh!" she shouted with worry. "I almost forgot the biscuits. André, I need you to check on the biscuits and make sure they haven't burned."

He mouthed in surprised several times then was finally able to get out, "Are you feeling okay grandma?"

She laughed out with a joyful tone probably reaching all the way done in her soul, "Actually I've never felt better. I woke up feeling fantastic then I realized that we hadn't planned for breakfast. Now help me with the biscuits so I can finish making breakfast then we can wake everyone up. After church, I'll come back and fix us a real Christmas dinner."

The songsmith blinked as he realized how coherent his grandmother appeared.

The graying grandmother looked to her grandson with a patient expression and asked, "Well? The biscuits?"

He slightly shook his head then answered, "Right, the biscuits." He grabbed some spare oven mittens then went to the oven next to his grandmother.

Valentine Residence  
>Christmas Morning, 2011<p>

Cat squinted her eyes shut as she fought to wake up after feeling a weird sensation in her head. She wasn't sure how she would describe it even if she wasn't in the state between awake and asleep. She rubbed the side of her forehead as she sat up in bed. Her head felt kind of funny, but she quickly disregarded it as she realized that it was Christmas morning. A grin instantly formed on her face as she threw her covers off of her legs.

"It's Christmas!" she shouted as she made her down the stairs. She ran to the living room, but stopped in her tracks as she saw her brother just sitting in one of the recliners in the living room. She swallowed her nervously as she looked over her brother sitting in silence and asked, "Hey."

Her older brother turned his head and looked to his sister with a sense of wonder on his face and in his eyes.

She gave him a sad expression, but he looked back up with a warm smile.

"I'm…" He started laughing and stood up. He hugged his little sister and whispered into her ear, "I'm alright baby sis. I'm alright… I'm finally alright."

The redhead stood in shock as she processed what her brother had said: "I'm alright baby sis."

He pulled away and smiled down at the red velvet haired teenager. "Why don't we go open some Christmas presents before mom and dad wake up?"

She blinked as she felt her eyes moistened at looking at her smiling brother.

Lynn Residence  
>Wee hours of Christmas Morning, 2011<p>

Mister Lynn made his way to the bathroom after rolling out of bed at his son's home. He and wife were spending Christmas with his son as they alternated Christmases between their children, but of course were planning to stop by his daughter's home later in the day. He found the walking easier than normal and didn't even need his cane.

He reached the bathroom and washed his face in the same manner as he had done since his injury during Korea. Once he was finished rinsing his face off he reached for the hanging towel next to the sink and dried off his face. He glanced up at the mirror as he finished wiping his face off and froze at what his saw: his nose was completely healed and the pocket scars were gone off his face.

"Mother of God," he whispered to himself as he stared at the mirror.

Shay Residence  
>Seattle, WA<br>Wee hours of Christmas Morning, 2011

Sam yawned as she walked across the short distance between Carly's room and bathroom. This was the fourth time she had to get up to use the bathroom during the night after drinking some of Carly's 'special' lemonade the night before. She didn't know how the brunette had convinced her to do such a thing, but she swore never again.

After finishing her business she went to the sink to wash her hands but stopped when she glanced at herself in the mirror. She paused and blinked at seeing her reflection. She stood for a few moments and ignored the water running over her hands. She reached up to her left cheek and saw that her scar was gone. She quickly cupped her hands and splashed water on her face then pushed the top of the liquid soap dispenser to put some in her hand. She quickly scrubbed her cheek and rinsed it off, but her cheek remained free of any blemish. She reached up for her hair and realized that her hair had finished growing back out to the length of the rest of her hair.

She took a step from the mirror and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Carly! Carly!"

"What?" Carly called out from her room.

The brunette turned her face into her pillow and groaned at being waken up. She had already woken up earlier in the night from feeling a tingling sensation throughout her body and if she didn't think it was silly, in her very bones. The brunette finally blew out a tired breath as she rolled over unto her back.

"Carly!" she heard Sam cry out again.

She closed her eyes and groaned again then threw off the covers and slid out of bed. "I'm coming!" she growled out. She crossed the hallway and entered her bathroom. "What?"

Sam desperately patted underneath her cheek. "It's gone."

Carly cautiously took a step forward and brushed her fingertips over her friend's cheek to feel the smooth skin.

The brunette whispered, "Oh my God. It's really gone. Your scar, it's gone."

The dirty blonde cautiously asked, "Am I dreaming?"

Carly laughed joyfully, "If you are then I am too."

The blonde softly pinched the brunette's arm.

"Ow!" Carly cried out and rubbed the side of her arm then gave Sam a pout.

"Sorry," she responded with a genuine apologetic sounding tone. "I guess you're not dreaming—"

Carly softly pinched Sam's arm and the web-hostess cried out in annoyance, "Ow."

The brunette laughed as she commented, "I guess you're not dreaming either."

The blonde started laughing and covered her mouth with a hand. She finally chocked out, "It's gone. It's gone…"

Carly smiled as she suddenly was reminded of something else happening unexpectedly a few Christmases ago. She whispered to her friend as she pulled her into a hug, "I guess it's a Christmas miracle."

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Christmas Day, 2011

Jade and Freddie sat across from one another in front of the Christmas tree, each still in their sleepwear but Jade wearing the same Santa cap she wore during her performance with Tori and Cat of André's Christmas song. The teenagers had already exchanged presents with their parents and the two had retired to the kitchen to give the couple some privacy (on Ruby's insistence over Marissa's objections of course).

The brown eye boy smiled at his greenish/blue eye girl as he reached for under the tree and presented her with a very small wrapped gift. She raised an eyebrow and delicately took the box from him. She held it in her left hand and pulled the lid off with her right hand. She reached inside and found a small, black jewelry box. She delicately pulled out of the other box and Freddie sat the gift back to the side as she proceeded to lift the lid up.

Jade sucked in a sharp breath in surprise at seeing the charm resting in the center of the box. She ran her finger tips over the dull golden shears with a green rhinestone with an intricate golden chain. She looked up to her boyfriend with a shocked expression.

Freddie smiled warmly at the pale actress and whispered, "It just screamed you when I saw it… Merry Christmas my Jade."

She covered her mouth for a moment then grinned and wrapped her arms behind his neck as she held on to the box. She replied just as softly in his right ear, "Merry Christmas Freddie."

* * *

><p>Author's Note: I can already hear what you're saying: 'He pulled a <em>deus ex machine<em> for Cat's brother, André's grandmother and Sam's scar'! Yeah, maybe I did, but unlike Dan, I don't find it funny one bit to make fun of people with traumatic brain injuries he revealed in 'Who Did it to Trina?' was the cause of Cat's brother's behavior or people suffering from Alzheimer's and Dementia. It's a devastating condition for the person and their families and quite frankly Dan should be ashamed of himself for using it as fodder for jokes in his shows and I'm not going to blasted well do it in the future as the jokes are made in future Victorious episodes. So, Dan introduced Judeo-Christian angels into his world with 'iChristmas' and I just took advantage of it and to quote a certain 'Holy Tax Account' looking angel, 'Good things do happen'.

I picked that Hollywood United Methodist Church due to its architecture and placement in the city, not actually saying what particular denomination of the Benson family. I have no idea.

Oh, before you ask, no; Dusty's story about his grandfather is not a retelling of something from my life, but I have seen how horrible it is for people to see their parents not be able to even recognize them as their children or revert to children worst than Cat is portrayed due to the diseases. Now that is heartbreaking and nothing to laugh at.

Obviously yes, there is some influence and inspiration from certain _supernatural_ show in this chapter; this is a partial homage to it. In clarification, the necklace Freddie gave Jade is the scissors necklace she is wearing in 'André's Horrible Girl' at Cat's mom's boss' house.

I was going to have Danny Woodburn make a Special Guest Appearance as Mitch, but unfortunately, he was unavailable for filming due to his prior commitment to the filming 'Mirror, Mirror' :P

Finally, the next chapter is going to be a major one. It's going to be a very surprising one, so tune in next week for it. It's going to be a game changer chapter.

Thanks for reading, see you next Friday, OneHorseShay.


	30. Chapter 30: Who I am Part 1

Author's Note: Hey everyone. I have an early update (and a big one) for the story. This was originally going to be one chapter (and important one), but then it got to over 20,000 words, so I'm splitting it up into two. I hopefully will get the next one out on Friday.

Rubbyy: I'm glad you liked the Supernatural references. I thought it might make a nice little Easter Egg during Christmas for those that understood the references.

Anon: Chapter 28 is complete; I was looking at 27 and 28 as really one chapter, but needed to split it up for story purposes.

CartoonistGirl6: I'm glad that you found it sweet. Sometimes you need the sweetness mixed with the drama or you'll go all emo in a bad way.

Twilight Warrior 627: Best chapter yet? How am I going to out do that? :P I always thought Anna was shortchanged in the show, so I thought I'd used an inspired incarnation as she was a people person.

Okay, on with the story with a slight warning emphasis of T with Adult Themes and Language for this chapter

* * *

><p>Chapter 30: Who I am… Part 1<p>

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Monday, December 26, 2011

Freddie surfed the web as he relaxed in his desk chair after a long day at the Pear Store with dealing with the traditional after Christmas returns. He was catching up with messages and the newest SplashFace videos, but his mind kept wonder to the fantastic events of yesterday and Christmas Eve.

Anna had come through for him.

Mrs. West nearly had a heart attack at seeing her father later on Christmas Day with his healed nose and scars vanished off his face. She was further shocked that he apparently could walk around without the assistance of his cane and practically looked ten years younger as if not just his nose had healed, but all his injuries and the further complications to his health from his war injuries had vanished. Jade responded with a surprisingly muted response of seeing her grandfather in such a healthy state.

Cat called everyone she could later Christmas morning about what she woke up to and was beyond ecstatic that her brother had completely recovered years after his fall off a hotel balcony and into a roof of a shuttle bus. Freddie and Jade had took a trip over Christmas afternoon to see for themselves what she had told them and it was quite interesting having a conversation with the older Valentine as it was evident that his eccentricities were gone. He had described the last few years as a half remembered dream and to him, no time had really passed since the accident. He was eager to get back on with his life and was planning to see if he could get a slot at UCLA or another college for the spring semester to pick back up his education.

While over at the Valentine's home, the tech producer had noticed that, which he would readily admit it could have been his imagination, that even through Cat's joyful mood, she seemed to be a little more coherent than usual and more like he remembered her at Kenan Thompson's party that he and the girls crashed to catch Steven earlier in the year.

When news came around to the couple about André's grandmother, the songsmith was somber about it as a piece of him was still in disbelief that after nearly teen years of her condition, she was suddenly fine and basically 'got her mind back'. Fortunately, depending on how you looked at their relationship, Tori was excited enough for both of them.

After the couple had returned home, Freddie got a call from Carly telling him that Sam's scar was gone and her hair had finished growing back out. Jade didn't care too much that the reminder to Sam about the price for hurting her Freddie was gone, but she kept her comments to herself. After everything she had seen and heard over the day, even she couldn't be a Christmas grunch.

Once everyone had shared the news with one another, everyone agreed that everything that happened to them was a Christmas Miracle.

Freddie remained silent and acted just as surprised as everyone else (which wasn't as hard as one might think because at some level he was surprised that all of it did happen) after each person he saw or was told about. He wasn't exactly sure how or even if he should bring up his role in what was dubbed the Christmas Miracles with the pale actress. It's not that he suddenly wanted to keep secrets from his girlfriend, but he wondered how he could possibly explain to his girlfriend the reason her grandfather had his nose back and didn't need the cane anymore and most of their friends had been touched in someway was because an Angel of the Lord played 'It's a Wonderful Life' with him and it was atonement for another angel using him to help Carly (she would definitely be furious over that part). The idea of explaining all that was scary enough, but somehow explaining why that while he was playing George Bailey, he talked to her other-self to try to help her from breaking up with Beck was an entirely different level of apprehension and doubt.

The tech producer didn't have to wrestle with those questions again for the moment as he heard Jade's quiet voice call to him from his open door, "Hey."

He looked away from the computer monitor that he really wasn't paying attention to and looked to his pale girlfriend. She wore her Christmas outfit from her performance of André's Christmas song.

He swiveled the chair and leaned back in it to face her as he whispered, "Oh my Go—Angel, oh my Angel. I didn't expect you to put it back on?"

She winked to him then closed the door behind her as she fully stepped inside the room. A wicked smile formed on her face as she leaned her back against the door and slipped her hands behind the small of her back.

Freddie raised a curious eyebrow from the almost predatorial look she was giving him then he heard the audible click of his door locking and realized that was why she put her arms behind her back (other than giving him an unobstructed view of her from head to toe in a Christmas outfit that looked so sexy on her that it was almost sinful). She usually only locked the door when she didn't want any interruptions when they were sharing their affections.

The Seattle Native chuckled as he pointed out, "We're the only ones here. Didn't your mom say she would be coming in late from your grandparent's?"

She slightly tilted her head to the side and answered with a false sense of innocence, "Not taking any chances."

She slowly approached him with a smirk on his face as he sat up in his seat. She leaned forward and rested a hand on either side of the arm rests. She give him a playful smile as she replied, "To answer your first question, well, you were a very, very good boy and I thought you deserved a little eye candy for Christmas." She shrugged her bare right shoulder and gave a cute sniff of her nose as she finished, "And maybe I needed to feel a little sexy in your eyes."

Freddie looked to her with the faintest of smiles and straight in the eyes. He reached up with his right hand and gently caressed her cheek. She closed her eyes and rolled her head into his touch. He leaned forward to gently capture her lips with a soft kiss. She reciprocated with a little pressure of her own against his lips. They shared a few moments of tender kisses then pulled slightly back with a soft mew of regret escaping through Jade's lips.

The brown eyed teenager looked to his blue/greenish eye girl and responded with a tender voice, "You are always sexy in my eyes and beautiful and countless other things."

She smiled at him bashfully and felt a slight flush form on her cheeks.

They both leaned to each other at the same time and resumed their kissing.

Freddie gently deepened his kiss as he reached up with his left hand and gently caught her red cap with his fingertips. He deftly lifted it off her head and sat it down on top of his keyboard. She smiled into her next kiss with him as she felt the material leave the top of her head. He softly kissed on her bottom lip a few times then started kissing along her chin then the side of her jaw line. She grinned as his lips reached the spot just under her left ear.

He started traveling down the side of her neck and she slightly leaned her head back to give him better access to delicately kiss on her pulse point once he reached it. She closed her eyes and mewed in response at the tender contact against her pale skin. He started traveling with his kisses further down her neck until he reached the hollow point between her neck and collar bone. His middle finger slipped under the strap of the dress and her bra and lifted them slightly up to pull over her shoulder as to allow him to freely kiss along her bare collar bone then left shoulder.

The brown eyed teenager's right hand reached back to her cheek and started trading deeper, but still slow kisses while his fingertips of his left hand trailed down her cheek, down the right side of her neck and softly and playfully brushed over her pulse point for a few moments before trailing over her bare collarbone. His hand continued down past the soft swell of her right breast then down over the black bow, three black buttons and white fuzzy trim down the center of the dress until he reached the buckle of her black plastic belt.

His hand pulled at the belt and the sliding of plastic of the top strap scrapping the loop broke the couple from their trading kisses for a moment. Jade slightly pulled away and took in a deep breath just to catch it from the kisses and from the surprise that he was indicating that he wanted to remove her dress.

The couple stared right into each other's eyes and held their breaths. Each carried the same uncertainty in their eyes as they did on that July night with Freddie instinctively stroked over her cheek with his thumb. Jade broke into a smile as she found the same caring and tenderness she saw just before she spoke the one word that set them on path that got them to this moment.

She lifted her left hand to caress his right cheek with her black silk glove and whispered, "Yes."

He smiled to her almost reverently then allowed his left hand to continue undoing her belt. Once it was unbuckled and each end hanging loosely, his left hand cupped her cheek while he dropped his right hand away then under her left armpit to reach around to the back of her costume. He fumbled to find the zipper through the white fuzzy trim that lined the top of the dress. He finally found it and got the tiny piece of metal between the side of his pointer finger and thumb, he slowly pulled it down until the zipper reached the end.

The pale actress stood up as her arms were getting tired in partially holding her up as she had leaned forward to him the entire time of their make out session and to allow her dress to slip off her body and to gather at her feet. She suddenly felt nervous as she stood there for a moment in her black bra, red bottoms that cheerleaders would wear over their underwear and black fishnet stockings regardless of the fact she wasn't showing anymore than she would at the beach in a swim suit.

He could see the nervousness in her eyes and was suddenly struck with the memory of the way she had described herself during their last beach trip on Labor Day weekend that she felt like she was dressing like a vampire dressing to go to the beach. He stood up and wrapped his arms around the small of her back as she lifted hers to around the back of his neck. He looked into her bluish/green eyes and whispered, "You are so beautiful to me my angel that held on to me and wouldn't let me go… I just hope I measure up to the man that you deserve."

She gave him a brief smile then pulled her arms tighter around the back of his neck to pull him into a deep kiss. He returned the kiss, but a moment later, dipped to his right side so he could slip his left arm under the back of her knees then lifted her up to carry her in his arms. He easily carried her over the two strides it took to reach his bed then gently laid her down on the surface. He hovered over her for another moment with his knees and arms supporting him as looked into her eyes one more time to see if she want to go through with where they were allowing their feelings to take them.

The dark brunette smiled one last time to assure him of her permission then pulled him down into another kiss.

After their gentle lovemaking, Jade and Freddie were resting in his bed looking at the ceiling (if they had their eyes open) with the sheet pulled up to keep the chill off of them. She was on his left side again as she was the first time they shared their undefined, but clearly deep feelings for one another. His left arm was around her waist resting on her abdomen with her left hand on top of his with only the white sheets separating them while the back of her head was supported by the pillow and his left shoulder.

Her red dress was still resting on the floor in front of his desk chair and hat on his keyboard. During their act, his T-shirt got tossed into his chair and sweatpants hung over the foot of the bed while her red boots were somewhere near the left foot of the bed. Her undergarments had made their way to Freddie's side of the bed while one of her black silk gloves had been tossed on his left night stand and the other hanging across his _Star Trek_ Commemorative Phaser, Tricorder and Communicator display plaque.

Jade rolled her head over to her left as she was curious as of the time, but instead of focusing on the red digital display of the clock sitting on his nightstand, she noticed a glint of silver. She hadn't notice it before and peak her curiosity. She sat up in bed and held sheet up to upper chest to cover her modesty with her right hand and forearm while she delicately picked up what appeared to be a type screw among several off the nightstand.

He opened his eyes as he felt her weight shift on the side of the bed. He smiled as she saw her pale back with her dark brunette hair flowing down her upper back and instantly recalled the last time he saw such a beautiful sight. He lifted his left hand and gently ran his pointer and middle finger starting from the base of her neck down her spine to the small of her back.

She closed her eyes at feeling his gentle contact and blew out a soft breath through her lips as she shivered. She pressed the corner of her mouth to her left shoulder and looked to him with a playfully questioning look in her eyes.

He grinned as he answered, "I wanted to do that when you first sat up the morning in my hotel room."

She playfully laughed, "Overcome your bashfulness? Since the last time?"

"No, but I thought I could still be respectful while touching such beauty. Maybe figure out where you hid your wings."

The corner of her mouth lifted into a bigger smile as she turned to her right to face him and leaned forward while keeping the sheet pulled tight against her to capture his lips in a soft gesture. The kiss lasted only lasted a moment, but conveyed her meaning of appreciation. She sat back up and to hold out her left hand to show him the screw. "What's this?"

Freddie took a moment to clear his throat and answer hesitantly, "It's a screw."

She let out a soft giggle (even if she hated giggling) and replied with a small smile, "I can see that, but I've never seen one like this before. Are you building something? Another camera?"

He shook his head. "No… it's one of the screws that was in my left leg… that was still in it on Christmas Eve."

Jade's mouth dropped open and her eyes widened at his confession. She asked with clear concern in her voice, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"With everything happened yesterday, I… I'm not in constant pain; I just get some tension in it sometimes."

She raised her pierced eyebrow as she asked, "But the screws?"

Freddie was suddenly becoming uncomfortable as he was seriously facing the possibility that to remain silent he couldn't just obfuscate the truth with a bit of truth, but would have to start lying to her. He blew out a tired breath and decided just to risk it, "You'll think I'm crazy… or worst."

She twisted quickly exposing her back to him again to place the screws back on the nightstand then back around to face him. She lifted her now free hand to cup his cheek. She looked him dead in the eye and whispered, "I won't think you're crazy."

He gave her a grateful smile then slipped his arm around the small of her back and on to her hip to gently pull her back down to lay with him which she readily complied. She snuggled to him and rested her head on his upper shoulder and pillow with her forehead resting against his left cheek and left hand on his bare chest as he pulled her tight against his side.

They lay together in silence for a few moments that stretched into a minute with only their respective soft breaths breaking the stillness of the room. Jade waited patiently for him to start as she could feel tension through his body and not the good kind they had experienced together a few minutes ago. Freddie finally gathered enough courage and began, "It all started just after Christmas Eve service ended and I was left alone; everyone else was eager to go or chat outside. I had walked up to look at the Nativity scene and just reflect on everything. It seemed like the time and place to do it. I've gone through a lot and needed a moment just to take a step back from it all and look at what got me there."

He took another breath and continued, "But then there was this lovely redheaded woman as in Cat's color of hair and just a little younger than Spencer was sitting in the first pew. I could have sworn I was alone, yet she suddenly appeared. We idly spoke for a minute or so until…" Freddie swallowed down his nervousness and Jade could literally feel through his skin his apprehension and gave him a soft hug to let him know it was alright even if she didn't know where he was going with his story.

"Until she revealed she was an Angel of the Lord. You know it was a clear night, but there was suddenly thunder and lightning outside shinning through the stain glassed windows and with the lightning illuminating the church, two shadow wings formed behind her like those of an eagle or hawk, just like you see in artwork of them." He paused for a moment the whispered in a reverent tone, "It was terrifying and beautiful all at the same time."

Jade took a slow breath at hearing him and immediately regretted it as she realized that she had took the breath and thought that she was doing exactly what he thought she was going to do. She whispered desperate for him to continue to at least for him to know that she wouldn't go back on her word, "Then what happened."

He still remained quiet and she was fearful for a moment that he would stop, but he finally spoke, "She wanted to show me what it was like to be damned for who I was not… what if I had said yes to Sam in Troubled Waters to see for myself if I really meant what I believe. Should I have given up everything of my old life over not just giving Sam a chance?"

It was the dark brunette's turn to shiver at the prospect of what he was saying, but he immediately reassured her with a slight squeeze of her pressed against him then continued, "So, she took me on an 'It's a Wonderful Life' trip and dropped me off right outside Carly's apartment. I ah… walked inside and found Carly alone in the living room. She was her usual self, as in before I left and it was a little surreal being back to that point in my life, but…" He kissed Jade's forehead then started back up his story, "I talked to her for a minute or so then turned right around and left to go back to my apartment. I didn't want to play George's part since I had something more important to do. I sent… _'you'_ at text message so I could speak to you on-line and a few minutes later the other you got on-line."

Jade's brow furled at that part, but she didn't have time to really contemplate that turn in the story as the kept going, "Anna told me before I walked into Carly's apartment that you and Beck were still together, but your relationship was on the rocks. You two had just lasted a little longer than here. So, I talked to her about it and told her that she needed to face all those problems with Beck before it was too late and one of you decided to call it quits like what happened with you and Beck. I showed her my copy of your Snow White film that I have on my phone to convince her that I wasn't crazy. She took my words to heart and looked like she was going to try to deal with them with Beck to stop them from breaking up."

Freddie took a couple slow breaths to let Jade take in what he just said and hoped she didn't think he had lost it right there. The pale actress spoke a few moments later with clear hesitation in her voice, "So instead of experiencing what it was like to have your old life back and see if you made the right choice to leave, you thought about saving my relationship with Beck?"

He cracked an uneasy smile as he replied, "Yes, because I know how much you love him and how much it broke your heart lose him. Maybe they will fail and it's too late to address their problems, but I had to try. I couldn't stand knowing you or her or whatever could go through that same heartbreak again without at least trying to prevent it if I had the chance."

"You tried that before with me remember? Trying to push me back to Beck, it didn't work."

The brown haired teenager grinned as he retorted playfully, "I still had to try for both of you. I can't be any other way and what briefly I saw of the others… including myself didn't change my mind that I made the right choice. I didn't care to meet the other me and why he said yes. I may have lost most of my old life in saying no, but I would have lost a piece of my soul if I would have said yes."

The dark brunette remained silent for a few moments as she thought on his words. She reached up with her left hand and gently stroked his right cheek. "And you don't have to give up that to be with me… for us to be happy together. You keep being my nice guy."

He playfully retorted, "So you're going to keep being my mean girl?"

She grinned and snuggled her forehead against his cheek. She breathlessly whispered, "Yes."

The two let out a soft laugh together as they held each other. They lay there content with one another for a few more moments until Jade spoke again, "As… _fascinating_ or however you want to describe what happened, because I don't have the words right now, I'm not making the connection between that and your leg?"

Freddie cleared his throat and started again, "Well, after she brought me back home, I asked her about something she mentioned before we left. She told me that another angel, Mitch, did something similar for Carly a few Christmases ago to show her that she should be happy the way Spencer is instead of being normal. He had built a magnetic tree instead of getting a real one for Christmas. It caught fire and burned up their presents. I guess that night he showed her what it would be like if he was normal and I guess it wasn't very nice since afterwards Carly was happy with Spencer's tree and demanded that they keep it, but…"

Her brow furled as she asked with concern, "But what?"

He took another deep breath to make sure he was calm as he answered, "Mitch apparently did some alterations to the scene to make it convincing for her … like play with my soul to give up my love for her at fourteen. That's a big no, no and I wanted some compensation for it, so I thought about wanting her to heal André's grandmother, Cat's brother, your grandfather and remove Sam's scar and a few… other things that I'm not sure if she pulled off or not and she did it without me saying anything."

The pale teenager clenched her jaw tight at her feelings going from contentment to seething rage in half a second flat at the idea that someone would play with him at such a fundamental level and an angel no less. She took several deep breaths to try and calm herself. She remained silent for a few moments then lifted her head off of his shoulder and looked him in the eyes, completely enraged and baffled at what he had told her. She asked with disbelief in her voice, "Why did you ask that for Sam? Why Sam after _everything_?"

He took a soft breath then answered with a calm voice, "The point had been made with the scar… one that I'm not sure she ever understood, but… it might sound stereotypical if not outright sexist, a girl's self-esteem is tied to their appearance and I can't be that cruel to her even after _everything_. I don't want to hate her… I don't want to hate anyone."

Six months ago that level of kindness and heart would be foreign if not outright revolting to her for its naïveté (as it was to her in regards to Tori before the summer), but this was just Freddie, the Freddie that he had spent all that time crawling back to get to being… the Freddie that she loved. As the perfect time to tell him she loved him occurred to her, he continued, "And well after Anna did all that… she said I forgot someone."

"Who?"

He gave her a boyish smile as he answered, "Me, so she touched my forehead then gave me the screws in my leg and I was completely whole again. It was her Christmas present to me."

She took several soft breaths as she looked at her brown eye boy.

He softly shook his head and whispered, "I know it sounds absolutely crazy Jade, but it's the truth… I promise you that it's the truth."

She gave a soft nod of her head then leaned forward to kiss him again as he pulled her tighter against him and palmed the back of her bare lower back. She pulled her lips away and smiled. She whispered in a conspiratorial manner, "I believe you… but I think it's a truth I think we should keep to ourselves. I don't want people to look at you as if you're crazy even with what's happen with André's grandmother and Cat's brother and my grandfather."

He laughed out softly, "Good idea… I guess that's going to be one of our secrets together as a couple."

She nodded, glad that he agree with her then looked to him tenderly for a few moments. She whispered in a seductive tone, "I guess so…" then dipped her head down to capture his lips.

He grinned as he returned her kiss and shared a few more before Jade pulled away and rested her head back on his shoulder.

He spoke up and pulled her out of her thoughts, "There was one more thing Anna mentioned that I think you should know."

"What's that?"

He whispered softly not wanted to disturb the intimate moment that formed between them, "She said that you would be a lovely form to mimic for one of her sisters when I suggested you could be one of them."

She whispered with a soft smile, "You're just being sweet."

He kissed her forehead and replied, "Doesn't make it any less true."

As Jade relaxed in his arms and would be content to stay in his embrace until morning, he smiled as he realized exactly when he was going to tell her he loved her, assuming she hadn't just figured it out with their love making, now he just had to figure out how to set up the circumstances.

West Residence  
>Tuesday, December 27, 2011<p>

Freddie reached into his closet and pulled out his HA leather jacket. He pulled it onto his shoulders and over his red Pear Store T-Shirt as he walked around the foot of his bed to pick up his keys off the opposite side nightstand. He smiled while he adjusted his collar and he looked down at Jade's sleeping form as she had rolled over after he had gotten up and now faced towards his computer desk. He could see a faint smile on her face through her fallen dark locks over her face while she snuggled her head into his Galaxy Wars pillowcase covered pillow and sheet pulled tight against her, exposing her bare right arm where he could see the hints of goose bumps formed on her pale arm.

He quietly picked up his keys off the nightstand with his right hand and slipped them in his jacket pocket as he leaned over and delicately brushed away her hair away from her pale face and behind her ear then gave a soft kiss on her forehead. He could have sworn that her barely perceived smile grew slightly wider as he pulled away. He moved down to the foot of the bed where the blanket had remained during and after their lovemaking and gently pulled it up and over to cover Jade up to her shoulders and specifically her arm.

He gave her another kiss and whispered, "See you this afternoon." He turned and headed out of his bedroom while passing a quick glance at his desk chair he had pulled close to the side of the bed to reassure him that one of his button up plaid pattern shirts was laying in the seat with a pair of his boxers and her socks so she could leave his room clothed as during his morning routine to get ready for work he had gathered and took her costume, cap and undergarments to her room so she wouldn't have to worry about hunting for anything (he had left a post-it note on top of his shirt to let her know where he placed her costume).

The Pear employee quickly made his way down the stairs and started to cut through the kitchen, but stopped and smiled at seeing Mrs. West in the kitchen preparing her coffee at the kitchen counter. She was in no hurry as she was taking the week off as vacation as no one in her business started back until after the New Year.

He let out a soft breath as he greeted the matriarch, "Hello Mrs. West."

She turned and returned with an equally warm smile, "Morning Freddie; sleep well?"

He looked down to break eye contact and cleared his throat. He put on a tight smile and answered with a soft breath, "Yes ma'am. I slept quite well."

She maintained her smile but raised a coy eyebrow as she asked, "How did Jade sleep?"

Freddie held his gaze to meet her eyes as he knew from her eyes she knew exactly what had happened between him and her daughter and looked like she was testing him. It's not like she couldn't notice that her daughter wasn't in her room and in those rare times Jade had slept over with him, the door wasn't kept lock. He gathered his courage and replied, "I think she slept quite fine… she's still sleeping. I didn't want to wake her up. She looks too peaceful to disturb."

The raven haired woman sat her coffee down on the kitchen island and approached the teenager. She stopped just in front of him and took a breath as she maintained eye contact with him. She just appeared to be studying him and trying to tease out any kind of sign to his real thought processes with her visual examination of him. She didn't have to attempt to read his mind as he offered with a respective tone, "What I and your daughter share is very precious to me and I do not take what we do lightly…"

Ruby took a deep breath and raised her right hand to rest on his left shoulder. She gave him a small smile and replied, "It really is to you isn't it?"

He remained silent as it sounded to him that it was a rhetorical question and his bashful expression just made her smile bigger as she realized how correct she had been of her assessment of him. She continued, "I'm like my mother and I would have preferred that Jade had waited until marriage, but… I'm glad that she did share her first time with someone that truly understand the meaning."

Freddie swallowed nervously and gave a nod of his head to the woman that had shown such kindness to him and respected.

She dropped her hand from his shoulder and turned to head to the key rack hanging next to the door that led to the garage. She lifted the keys to more or less Jade's car and walked back over to him to hand him the keys. "Here."

He gave her a curious expression and asked, "What are these for?"

The raven haired beauty slightly tilted her head to the side as she answered, "I accidentally hit your Charger when I was pulling in to the garage when I came in late last night. I didn't pull up over far enough and clipped it really bad. I had them both towed last night. They're going to be able to get my car right back to me later this morning as a priority job. You just have to pay the right price, but yours is going to need a lot more work."

He blinked and nearly shouted with dread, "You hit it? _Are you okay_?" He walked closer to look her up and down.

Mrs. West held up her hands and answered quickly to dispel his worry, "I'm fine. I'm absolutely fine."

He let out a relieved breath as he responded, "That's good to hear, but you really didn't need to send it to the shop. I mean it is all beat up anyway. Another deep scratch isn't going to make a difference."

She gave him a sympathetic smile, "I messed up your driver's side door pretty good. It needs some repair. The good news is that they should get it done just before New Years."

He grinned and snorted out a breath. "Hey, maybe it will come back to me with a driver's side door that matches the rest of the car."

The West Matriarch raised her right hand to cover a small smile then responded, "You never know."

He gave her a respective nod as he departed, "Well, I'll see you this afternoon. I'm sorry that you're the one that'll have to explain to Jade why her car is gone."

She smirked while giving him a brief wave as he exited into the garage.

* * *

><p>Jade took a deep breath and smiled as she finally woke from her slumber and breathed in Freddie's sent off of his pillow. She rolled over expecting to see her boyfriend resting next to her, but only saw an empty spot. She blinked a few times in surprise and her left hand still under the top sheet (and blanket she noticed) slid over to his spot and felt that it was fairly cool in comparison to the rest of the bed.<p>

She kept the sheet pulled tight against her with her left hand as she sat up in the bed and glanced around to see that she was indeed alone in the room. She instinctively looked down at the clock and saw the time to realize that he should already be at work. As the dark brunette looked away from the clock, she saw that Freddie's chair was rolled over fairly close to the side of the bed. The various shades of blue articles of clothing resting in the seat and the stark contrast yellow post-it note resting on top of the shirt were blindly obvious to notice.

The pale actress leaned slightly over in the bed to grab an arm rest and finished pulling the chair right next to the bed. She picked up the post-it note and shook her head with a smirk as she only needed a moment to read it. She sat it aside on his night stand next to the screws that use to be in his leg then looked back to the clothing. She wondered if he realized it or not, but the blue and white plaid patterned shirt he left her was the one she picked out from his hotel room closet to wear the morning after the first time they made love and the blue boxers may have been the same one she had borrowed from him that morning. He did say that blue was her color.

She reached over for the shirt and slid one arm at a time into a sleeve while the other held the sheet close to her to keep the chill of the room off of her. She quickly buttoned the shirt up then pulled the sheet out from under the shirt before reaching for the boxers and shoved them under the sheet to struggle them on while remaining in the bed. Once they were on, she swung her feet from under the cover and sheet and slid her socks onto her feet.

She immediately headed out of the room and started down the stairs to get her morning cup of coffee. The dark brunette quickly reached the bottom of the stairs into the kitchen and made her way to the cabinet to grab a mug. She poured herself a cup of coffee from the still fresh pot of coffee sitting in the coffee maker. She took a deep breath of the aroma from the warm liquid then brought the edge of the cup to her lips for a quick sip.

Once satisfied with her drink, she strolled into the living room where her mother was watching television and took a seat next to her on the couch. The teenager greeted her mother with an unusually cheerful manner, "Morning."

Ruby lifted a corner of her mouth as she glanced to her daughter and saw what she was wearing and that it wasn't her _daughter's_ clothing. She answered a moment later with a casual tone, "Morning… sleep well?"

Jade slightly tilted her head to the side and answered nonchalantly, "I slept great."

The older West smirked and commented with a soft laugh, "I bet you did."

The pale singer's brow slightly furled and she frowned from her mother's comment. "What do you mean by that?"

The raven haired woman softly laughed as she replied, "You spent last night with Freddie… and I don't mean the occasional 'you fall asleep with him' type of spending the night with him."

Jade blew out a breath through her nose and shook her head as she closed her eyes. She opened them a few moments later and looked to her still smirking mother. She snorted out an irritated breath as she asked, "Am I going to have to sit through some lecture from you?"

"What is there to lecture you about? You understand the birds and the bees," her mother quickly met her daughter's challenge.

Jade put on an even expression answered with a guarded, but satisfied response, "Good, I'm glad we don't have to go through that mother/daughter talk—"

Mrs. West wore a knowing smiled as she interrupted, "But—"

Jade immediately squinted her eyes and whined, "But what?"

"We never really talked about you and Freddie having sex when you two first got together and since I never saw any signs that you continued, I never really saw the need to bring it up since you two seemed to handle it surprisingly well."

Jade sat her coffee down on the coffee table and crossed her arms under her chest. She huffed out to correct her mother's terminology, "_Love_… so you want to have that conversation right now since we might start again?"

She gave her daughter a reassuring smile as she answered, "We don't need a conversation; I just wanted to let you know that… I may not approve of _when_ you decided to… go to that level of intimacy or continue to in the future before you get married, but… but I do approve of _who_ you share that level with and I believe it means just as much to him as I know it does to you. So treasure what he gave to you too."

The pale actress was caught off guard by what her mother had said and looked to her wide eyed. She cleared her throat then cautiously replied, "Okay… good, that's… that's good." She looked back down to the table and quickly grabbed her coffee to bring back up to her lips and cover the awkward feeling coming over her.

Ruby let a smile play on her face as she softly chuckled at her daughter's embarrassment then turned her attention back to the television. "Oh, and I had to let Freddie take your car to work today."

"What?"

* * *

><p>The time was just after four thirty in the after noon when Freddie blew out a breath as he walked into his room and pulled out his PearPhone out of his Hollywood Arts jacket after coming back from work. He sent off a quick text message to Carly to let her know that he was going to be available to video chat after receiving something in the order of ten text messages frantically asking him to call her back. If it was this important to speak with him then he wanted to do speak to her face to face (he safely assumed that if something <em>really<em> serious happening in Seattle, that Mrs. West would have simply called the store and told him).

Freddie sat his phone down on his desk then pulled off his jacket and tossed it on his bed. He dropped in his chair and turned his attention to boot up his computer. He ran a hand over his forehead and through his hair as his other hand moved his mouse around to bring up a video chat window. He wasn't sitting there for a minute when Carly's screen name popped up requesting a video chat.

He quickly accepted the request and Carly's near panic face appeared on the monitor. He began, "Hey—"

She shouted, interrupting the former Seattleite, "I've been trying to get a hold of you all day!"

He snorted out a breath being a little offended thinking that she had some kind of priority to his time and answered, "I've been busy. I've been at work. People are still returning gifts from Christmas and taking advantage of post-holiday sales."

"Sorry," she answered with an embarrassing tone.

He answered with a patient smile. "It's alright. What did you want to talk about?"

His question spurred her right back to her excitement, "Right! They're giving Nora a parole hearing at the end of the week! They want to let her out on New Year's Eve! Something about making up for putting the hearing off after Christmas."

Freddie put on an even expression and blinked at his obviously panicked… something. He took a calm breath in the vain hope that she would follow suit and calm her panic for at least a moment, "So?"

Her mouth dropped open and blinked at him several times. There was a still silence between the pair then she shouted, "They're going to let her out!"

The brown eyed teenager attempted to reason with her, "They're not going to let her out. She kidnapped us. They're not going to let her out until she's eighteen at the earliest."

Her eyes darted back and forth while taking several short breaths threatening to hyperventilate, "You don't know that! They could think she's fine or it was just a one time thing—"

Freddie lifted his hands and interrupted, "Carly—Carly—Carls, you need to calm down. It's going to be fine."

Carly's mouth became a thin line and he could see the look in her eyes she got when she really became annoyed. She finally snapped, "Calm down? Calm down? You never tell a girl to CALM DOWN!"

He retorted in a sharp tone, "If you care about her, you certainly do if she could start hyperventilating especially when she has a history of asthma."

His tone and his mentioning of caring about her caused her to pause for a moment and gave him an opportunity to attempt to calm her, "Carly just let it go."

The brunette snapped as if Freddie had lost it with what he suggested, "Let it go? After what she did?"

He gave a slight frown as he retorted with a slightly annoyed tone, "I'm letting a lot of things go for what people did to me. You should try it; it's quite liberating."

The brunette broke eye contact from the tech producer and looked down at her desk.

"I'm not freaking out because she can't hurt me just like she can't hurt you. Say she does get out, if she is still as psycho enough as last time to go after you, Sam can hurt her… I don't think your father is going to mind letting that happen. Besides, maybe it was just a temporary break from reality being so depressed at being alone for so long. You push someone far enough, they may break and in ways that you can't predict."

"I was depressed when I wasn't asked to the junior prom, but I didn't kidnap Uncle Jessie and locked him in the basement."

Freddie blinked and shook his head as he flippantly remarked, "Of course no one asked you to junior prom; you just broke up with Steven about two weeks or so before prom. Everyone assumed you were going with him and already had dates by the time you broke up with him… and they were probably afraid you could go all Taylor Swift on them if they hurt you… you wouldn't accept me as even an escort for you."

The brunette looked down at her desk in embarrassment at those little facts being pointed out to her. She shook off her embarrassment and countered, "But she doesn't have to be let out, that's the other reason why I called."

He raised an eyebrow and cautiously asked, "And that would be?"

"They let us know they were going to have the hearing so we can testify at her hearing to let them know what we think."

Freddie shook his head. "No, Carly, I am not going up to testify… because I'm not going back up there to waste my time with her. I'm going to have plans for New Years. I don't know exactly what they are at the moment, but I'm not having her waste one second of my time when I can be celebrating the New Year."

Her mouth dropped open as she looked to him gob smacked. She shouted, "She beat the fudge out of Gibby the last time! How can you be so flippant about this?"

Freddie blinked as he focused his attention on the brunette. He whispered out with a great deal of disbelief in his voice to the point of nearly questioning her sanity, "You're just pulling my leg now. Beat the fudge out of Gibby? What fight were _you_ watching? She hit him with her best shot and it just pissed him off and went rip-shirt Captain Kirk on her when he took his shirt off. We had to pull _him_ off of _her_ after Guppy let us out. In hindsight we should have just let Gibby finish the job if you're this worried about her."

Carly leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest as she frowned as he easily shot down another one of her points either from her memory of the event being colored by her emotions or her outright distortions of what happened to convince him to do as she asked.

Freddie closed his eyes for a moment as he rested his forehead in his hand. He looked back up to see Carly's annoyed expression and calmly continued, "Please Carly, I am begging you, don't go. Don't show up and don't worry about her. It's going to be fine. Throw a big New Years Eve party like you do every year and just have a good time and put her out of your mind. If by some crazy chance they let her out and she magically shows up, have Sam beat the chizz out of her and maybe string up like a piñata and let all the guests take a swing on her with wiffle bats then dump her in one of the dumpsters behind the building. No ones going to care. Maybe you could film it and put it up on the site. I know you'd get a lot of hits for it. Girl fights are always popular."

Carly shook her head and tried again, "If you're worried about you mother trying anything, I promise that won't happen."

Freddie rolled his eyes and snorted out, "You can't promise me that. You can't guarantee me she won't try anything even if I was inclined to go up. Sorry Carls, I'm not flying up and you shouldn't waste your time on her either."

The brunette huffed out a breath and put a pout on her face.

Freddie looked away to anything other than Carly's face as he realized this was going to be one of those times they would agree to disagree or more accurately that she would just have to accept that he wasn't going to go along with her. It wasn't lost on him that the last time he didn't go along with her everything went straight to Hell between them.

He took a deep breath and cleared his throat. "I've said my peace about it. I hope you take my advice, but there is something I want to tell you and it's very important. I was going to tell you on New Years Day as a fresh start to ring the new year in, but since I have you now, I'll go ahead and tell you. I think it will cheer you up."

The brunette sat up in her seat and looked to him with concerned expression.

He gave her a soft smile and finished, "I forgive you."

Carly leaned back away from the monitor and swallowed with an audible sound.

"I forgive everything. All the pain, suffering and mistakes between us, I forgive you. We are good. We can all just let it go."

She covered her mouth with her left hand and blinked several times as her eyes instantly moistened.

He gave her a comforting smile as he whispered, "It's alright. Everything's alright Carly."

She dropped her hand away from her mouth and rested it on her upper chest. "But you're still not here."

He may have been confident with his decision even after his trip by Anna, but there was still a hint of sorrow in his voice as he replied, "I know, but this is my life now. I'm happy here and we will just have to accommodate that fact if you want to attempt to be friends. There are plenty of long distance relationships that work especially with having the internet. Do you want to try to rebuild what we… what we were suppose to have in the first place?"

She broke into a smile and gave a nod of her head. "Yeah… I'd like that."

He smiled as he felt a great relief come over him then continued, "Okay then… so, how was your Christmas other than of course Sam's miracle? You never really got around to that part after letting me know."

She let out a soft giggle then answered, "Well…"

Vega Residence  
>Wednesday, December 28, 2011<p>

Jade and Freddie were already at the card table sat up in the Vega kitchen as they waited for the others to arrive for the afternoon poker game. The dark brunette had opted to drive her and Freddie to Vega's home and he didn't complain as he had relaxed in the passenger seat and just enjoyed the ride after a long day at work with people still trying to take advantage of after Christmas sales. Robbie was sitting on the right side couch with Rex while André were sitting on the left couch and Tori was going about setting up the trays of candy for each player.

As Tori was pouring the last dish of candy, the door bell rang. Before either André or Robbie could offer to get the door, Tori sat the bag of candy down at the card table and quickly walked to the door. She opened it to see a smiling Cat and an apprehensive looking Dusty. The brunette greeted the pair, "Hey Cat… Dustin?"

"Hey!" the redhead replied while Dusty gave a nod of his head to the brunette with a smile, "Vega."

Rex shouted from Robbie's lap, "Hey country boy! What'cha doing here?"

"Hey… Powers," he answered back with a hesitant wave and expression on his face as he figured he could humor the boy for a moment. Dusty looked to Tori to quickly explain since it was her home and she was entitled to an explanation, "She needed a ride and called me up. I'm not sure why she didn't call up Shapiro or someone else."

Jade called from the kitchen, "Robbie doesn't have a car."

Dusty threw out a hand and called back with a smile, "Hey Angel Girl." He laughed as he glanced to the redhead, "Oh and here I thought I was special."

The redhead rested her hand on his upper right arm and corrected, "You are special Soapy."

He poked his tongue underneath his bottom lip to hold back a laugh and shook his head. "Well, you're here safely so I'm going to be heading out." He gave Tori a polite nod then turned to head back to his car, but Cat grabbed on to the bottom of Dusty's black leather jacket sleeve and looked to Tori. "Can he stay?"

Robbie sat up straighter in his seat and didn't look happy at all with Cat's question while Dusty glanced at the redhead with a furled brow as he was just as much caught off guard.

Tori was a little surprised with a slight drop of mouth and a raised eyebrow. She motioned to them with a wave of her right hand up and down at them and answered, "Ah, sure. That's fine."

The Southern teenager slightly tilted his head to the side and responded uncomfortably with someone imposing an invention for him on another even if it was Cat, "I don't want to impose Vega."

She waved him off and assured him, "No, it's fine. Come, join the party. We're just waiting for Beck."

Dusty gave a slight nod, but he was still weary about staying. His apprehension was interrupted with Cat tugging on his arm to pull him with her to the kitchen.

A few minutes later, Beck arrived and the group gathered around the card table sitting in the kitchen with their side of candy and drinks.

Tori sat at the card table with her back perpendicular to the kitchen island with André to her left then Beck followed by Robbie with Rex sitting on the table. The seating arrangement from Tori's right began with Trina followed by Cat, Dusty, Jade and Freddie rounding out the arrangement sitting beside of Robbie. The brunette reached across the table with handed Dusty a drink and a small token of candy. "This is yours."

He blinked at the small tray of various color candy then back up at the brunette. He asked with an even voice, "For what?"

André answered, "We use candy instead of poker chips."

He pushed the candy back with his right hand to the younger Vega sister. "I don't gamble."

Most, but not all of the others looked to him as what he was saying was completely foreign to them.

Trina laughed and looked to him with an amused expression, "It's not gambling; it's just candy."

He glanced to the older Vega sister and replied calmly, "Someone had to pay for the candy so it has an intrinsic value and you're playing for more candy through poker the distinct possibility of losing what you have… _that's gambling_. I guess you don't see it as you're betting with other people's money since it is candy instead of money. I have a religious probation against gambling, so no thank you, I'll just watch."

Tori's mouth dropped open slightly then she finally found her voice to answer with an awkward smile, "Okay, that's… that's fine." She turned to the deck and started shuffling the deck and started dealing out the cards.

They started playing a few hands as Dusty took time to watch each of them at a time. He noticed a few things immediately: West was always confident in her hands and couldn't see any apparent tells at the moment if she was bluffing and easily intimidated the younger Vega as she always seemed too cautious in her playing; Shapiro looked like he didn't even understand they were playing Texas Hold'em, but canasta; Cat played almost instinctively without any regard to strategy and seemed to pay off for her; while the rest seemed to just enjoy the game and company without any real regard to winning candy, especially Benson.

Once they finished their fourth or fifth hand, Beck smiled to Cat's ex and with a friend tone commented, "I don't think we've ever formally been introduced."

Dusty gave him a respectful nod, "Dustin, but I'm called Dusty." He heard Cat give a soft laugh and quickly corrected, "And Soapy by others."

"Beck," the attractive teenager returned.

He acknowledge with a casual tone, "Oliver."

The actor let out a charming laugh that most girls loved, "No, it's just Beck."

Dusty wore an even expression as he replied with an equally even tone, "Okay Oliver."

The actor slightly frowned and lifted his hands up from his folded arm position. Beck countered with a nearly flippant tone, "Why are you using my last name?"

Dusty replied with a guarded tone, "I use your last name as a way to keep emotional distance between us. There's not negative or positive connotation for me using it. I only use people's first or middle names for two reasons: they're my friend or they're my enemy."

Freddie glanced to Jade and raised an eyebrow as the mystery had been solved to why he never called people by their given name or nickname, yet it troubled him at the same time.

Rex spoke up, "I guess you don't have a lot of friends."

The web-master smirked as he retorted and was willing to indulge Robbie to make his point, "Rather have one or two good ones than a dozen wishy-washy ones and California really doesn't offer that many quality people from what I've seen during my time here."

The longer haired actor chuckled, "I assume present company excluded?"

Dusty shrugged his shoulders as he answered with a lifted corner of his mouth, "I don't know _most_ of you well enough to judge you either way and I usually take stories about people with a grain of salt unless I've seen it for myself."

Tori raised an eyebrow and asked curiously, "People talk about us?"

He gave the actress a sympathetic expression at seeing that she appeared that naïve or simply forgot how she had been the talk of the school with her pimple and underarm cream thanks to a certain ventriloquist and answered, "It's high school Vega, everyone talks about everyone else." He looked Robbie straight in the eyes and finished, "And it didn't help when you had someone use TheSlap to humiliate you for the school to see and become a conversation piece."

Rex spoke up with a laugh, "Eww, country boy is calling you out."

Robbie frowned as he looked to his puppet companion.

Dusty corrected with an even tone, "No, I already called him out at the beginning of the school year, but I'm still not aware of any apologizes he's made to people."

Beck commented dryly with a roll of his eyes as he was suddenly reminded of another that wasn't as easy going about friends' behaviors, "I guess you have made some judgments of us and we failed."

The Southern teenager snapped his head and looked to Jade's ex. He responded in a firm tone, "In regards to Shapiro, quite justifiable ones. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that I may not like his reporting of Cat liking SkyStore and making out like something was wrong with her. I would think you would be the first to understand and agree with me since he put West in his crosshairs, but then I remember all the video shows is that you were too busy laughing and making it into a joke of Shapiro falsely blasting around the school that you were going to break up with West when it is clear as day that it was bothering her and it looked like you cared a flying flip about how she felt."

The tension in the room spiked in an instant with Tori and André passing each other a concerned look while Freddie looked surprised as he had not seen the video and actually been warned not to watch it by Dusty because he thought it would upset the tech producer. He didn't doubt the teenager's accuracy in describing Beck's actions on the video and could feel the first prickles under his skin of being annoyed with Beck. Jade put on an even expression as she relaxed in her chair and dropped her hands in her lap. Cat remained silent as she was feeling torn for Robbie yet at the same time comforted for someone defending her. Trina tried to hide her smirk as she wasn't surprised one bit with his biting commentary on Robbie even if she didn't understand the boy's attraction to the redhead, but a piece of her gave pause at pointing out a glaring flaw with Beck.

Beck glanced with a guarded expression to Freddie and was met with a surprise one, but he snapped his attention back to Dusty when the webmaster called out, "Don't look at him. I'm not his mouthpiece. I'm the one talking to you. The staff put me up as quasi-in-charge of TheSlap and I reviewed all the video over the summer deciding what was going to stay and I saw his file footage. I'm just saying what I saw on the video."

The longer haired teenager took a deep breath as he tightened his folded arms on the edge of the table and looked at the webmaster.

Dusty matched his stared without hesitation, but then felt a soft hand rest on his right knee under the table. Instinctively he wanted to pass a glance to the dark brunette sitting on his right to assure her that he got her message, but he didn't want to show one sign of capitulation to Beck due to gentlemanly pride or just pigheadedness, so he spoke, "My apologizes Miss Vega for going off on a tangent and interrupting the game."

He felt a moment later another soft squeeze on his jean covered knee that he took as a thank you and ironically kept his poker face.

Tori laughed nervously and answered, "Yeah well… whose deal?"

André answered as he took the cards from Tori, "My turn."

He started dealing out to the rest of them and started on another hand Freddie casually commented, "I thought you'd be back in Carolina for Christmas?"

The brown haired teenager shrugged a shoulder. "Well, I was, but I came back to just enjoy the city and beat the hectic flight traffic that is to come just after the New Years to get back. I figured if I'm stuck here for another five and a half months, I might as well take advantage of some of the free time to really see the stars…" He smirked as he finished, "Oh and Lucy Hale is my sister and she's in town."

They all gave him a curious or questioning expression while the redhead on his left frowned at hearing that he was literally counting down until graduation.

Dusty grinned as he glanced past each of them to look each of them in the eyes. He chuckled as he asked, "Am I joking?"

Jade smirked with a shake of her head with Freddie snorting out a laugh. The green and blue streaked hair teenager rested her forearms on the cushioned part of the table after accepting her cards and smiled to their guest to the party. She asked with a playful voice, "Dusty? Would you indulge a lady's curiosity?" She glanced to André and swiped the edge of one of her cards indicating she wanted another card.

He politely bowed his head towards the girl sitting next to her and answered with a smile, "Of course my lady, what would you like to know?"

"Why are you so eager to go back?"

"What?"

Jade shrugged a shoulder, "Why do you want to go home? You don't consider here home? It's not like you're going to get a lot of acting or production over there unless you head up to New York."

Dusty held back a smile briefly as he caught Jade pass a quick glance to Freddie as she question about considering this place home, but quickly cracked a smile. "There are plenty of things that are filmed in Wilmington, but I'm not worried about that since I'm not going to do any of that."

Jade frowned and furled her brow as she asked, clearly confused by his answer, "You're not going to do what? Acting? Production?"

He shook his head and answered, "None of it. I don't care for any of this. All the stuff we do at school."

Jade blinked and put on a genuinely confused expression, "What?"

Dusty grinned as he casually answered at seeing everyone else's confused and curious expressions, "I don't want to be an actor or producer or special effects guy or any of this stuff we learn here. I've enjoyed what I've learned about in computers, computer generated effects and surprisingly the creative writing part that I'll probably will keep up as a hobby… probably writing bad fan fiction, but… I don't want to do any of this. I don't know what I want to do with my life yet, but I certainly know it's none of this."

Jade leaned her head forward and her brow furled as she asked with evident shock in her voice, "Then why are you at Hollywood Arts? Why did you enroll if you don't want to be any of those things?"

He gave her a patient smile as he answered, "Remember, I use to go to Northridge… you know _Northridge High School_."

She turned her head to look at Freddie and raised her pierced eyebrow with her confused frown. The others at the table were no less confused at where he was going with his statement. The tech producer shrugged his shoulders then the couple looked back at TheSlap's webmaster.

Dusty cracked a smile and motioned with his hands to the rest of the teenagers at the table as he spoke, "You do realize all those jokes you and everyone else make about Northridge and all the people going there aren't really jokes. It's really like that and worst. It is a Hellhole."

Some of them turned their attention to their cards or anything else with some embarrassment showing on their faces as they had never met anyone from Northridge and never gave it much thought about his stray comment that he use to go to the school.

However, the Southern teenager didn't look offended and happily continued for Jade, "Okay, okay, I'll fill you in: see when my dad and I moved to Los Angeles after my freshman year in Carolina, we moved into the Northridge school district, so I went to Northridge for the sophomore year… and it was Hell."

Jade raised a corner of her mouth and asked apprehensively, "What? You got picked on?"

Dusty laughed with a sarcastic tone, "Oh they tried, oh did they _try_. They saw me as fresh meat, but give and get a few a bloody noses and put some of them on the ground and the rest tend to stay clear. You establish a pecking order pretty clearly at Northridge. You're either on top or someone's victim." He shrugged a shoulder as he continued, "You still had to watch your back though wondering when someone was going to try to stab a sharpened pencil in your back or in your gut… I know I did because some held grudges in not liking the fact that in their eyes some racist country hick could kick their asses. And the rest…"

He took a quick sip from his drink to wet his throat then continued, "I mean, it is a crap school and almost all the people that go there _are trash_." He glanced towards the males of the table as he made his point, "I don't understand how you guys and the rest at school carry on about how hot you think Northridge girls are. Most of them are trash and carrying some STD and will spread their legs in a heartbeat if they thought it could get them ahead… and the innuendo is intentional." He turned back to a general gaze to the group as he spoke, "The guys? Covered that already and the teachers? They didn't want to be there anymore than we did and it showed with them catering to the dumbest ones in the class. Pardon my language ladies, if I had graduated from there, the most useful thing I could get out of my diploma would be to use it to wipe my behind."

Jade motioned her right pointer finger to him and asked still with a hint of disbelief in her voice, "You audition just so you could get out?"

He let out a soft chuckle as he answered, "Bleeding heart liberals say they believe in every other choice except school choice because it would screw with their teacher unions. It's one of those fields where performance isn't judged and incompetence can't get you fired by design from them. If we could chose what schools we went to then they would actually have to compete for our money. It's a great racket they got going for them." He snorted out and shrugged a shoulder, "I saw Hollywood Arts as my only way out, so at the end of my sophomore year, I took that summer to learn to play the guitar, which I chalk up to being a natural on any string instrument from my mother, and put together a portfolio of anything and everything I could work on from visual effects to creative writing before the fall. They liked the breadth of my work and liked the fact that I was a generalist instead of specializing in anything particular, so I'm adequate at best on a lot of things, so they let me in."

André spoke up as he raised the hand with two reds, "So that's why you were so defiant of Helen when she wanted us to re-audition? You didn't want to risk going back to Northridge."

Dusty blew out a breath and quickly answered, "I was defiant of her because she thought she could go back and break an agreement that we as students have in good faith with the school: we can't simply be kicked out on the grounds of one performance if we are in compliance with the code of contact and maintaining our minimum grade point average." He shook his head and put on a disgusted smirk as he finished, "Also I don't like the fact of being judged for my work from someone who has no qualifications _to judge me_ since her only reason for getting the job is because she's black. That's not a valid qualification."

André sat up in his chair straighter as he looked at the Southern teenager with a curious expression while the rest looked surprised that he would so blunt about such a thing.

Freddie was about to say something to diffuse any kind of situation before someone could possibly become offended, but Dusty snorted out, "It's the truth… You know what she was doing before she got this job? Managing a movie theater. That's it. She was a famous child actor that could never transition to be an adult actor and the closest she ever got back to the industry was running a movie theater. Drake and Josh actually got that part of her life correct. So you have Helen with zero teaching credentials getting the job over Dickers with his nearly twenty years of experience in teaching and administrator and reservist in the Corps." He leaned forward and looked André straight in the eyes and finished, "If Dickers was black and Helen was white and she was hired over him, don't you sit there and tell me that no one would be screaming foul on that hiring."

Tori laughed nervously with an awkward expression on her face, "You really are passionate about this aren't you?"

He gave her a friendly smile as he responded, "I'm a simple person Vega. Right is right and wrong is wrong and rewarding people that haven't done any work over those that have is wrong and offends me." He looked to André to finished, "If people have to earn their way in for a slot at school, I think the same rule should apply to the ones teaching us and someone is more qualified than they are then too bad, that's just life."

Rex spoke up energetically, "The man's got a point."

Dusty found himself giving the puppet a respective nod of the head in acknowledgment.

Robbie jumped into the conversation and asked with a curious tone, "If you didn't want to be here with your dad, why didn't you just stay with your mother?"

Dusty took a slow breath then answered with a surprisingly upbeat tone, "My mother is among the angels and I certainly wasn't going to abandon my dad to stay with my cousins."

The teenagers passed various glances to one another as the suddenly felt a sense of awkwardness. Freddie felt a little troubled that he didn't know that about webmaster. Jade passed him a sympathetic look while Cat rested her hand on his upper left arm.

He gave the redhead a reassuring smile. "It's alright Sweetheart."

Rex spoke up, "At least you have one parent."

The curly haired teenager, "Hey, some things are private,"

Rex shook his head and regretfully replied, "I know."

Dusty should have been offended about the puppet whining about parents, but felt more pity for Robbie. Instead he asked with a curious expression towards the puppet, "I thought Shapiro was your dad."

The puppet master and Rex looked to one another in utter shock then back to the L.A. immigrant.

He lifted a corner of his mouth and casually responded, "The person that made you is your parent and I don't think you just popped into existence… unless you're a displaced soul inhabiting the body like in Chucky."

The puppet and his handler looked back to one another with a mixture of confusion and outrage.

Dusty let out a laugh at the pair's reaction then stated, "While you two work out your family tree, I want to know about the rumors that are flying that a lot of you had some Christmas miracles. I've seen Cat's brother, so I know that one is true, but are the rest true?" He looked to André and asked, "Is your grandmother really alright."

The songsmith nodded and answered with smile, "It's true. She's completely fine and not afraid of everything anymore."

The Southern teenager returned with a tight smile. "That's… beyond nice to hear."

Andra gave a thankful nod as he answered, "Thanks…"

The group finished the hand with Cat winning the hand and André starting out dealing again. As he was doing so, he grinned and announced, "Since we're on good news and all here, I can go ahead and tell you the news: we have a New Years plan."

Tori smiled as she asked, "Oh, what's that?"

He softly laughed for a moment and began again, "You're ready? You're ready? Kenan's going to throw a party at his house and we're all invited. We're going to rock the house like we did last time."

The groups started laughing and excitedly chatting among themselves at the news. The dark brunette and the brown eyed teenager individually realized at the same moment how easy it was to figure out how they were going to handle New Years and what they wanted to say to one another just dropped in their laps.

Freddie spoke up with a grin, "A New Year's party at Kenan's? That should be fun. Far better than what Carly wanted me to do."

Jade frowned as she had already been relayed the story and found it too convenient as an excuse to get him back up to Seattle before his eighteenth birthday. She didn't trust his mother as far as he could see her and she was still suspicious of Carly.

Tori's brow furled as she asked, "What did she want to do?"

He casually rolled his eyes and answered, "Go to a parole hearing for Nora Dershlit."

Dusty slid into the conversation with a snap of his fingers, "Nora? I remember Nora. She was that psycho girl that kidnapped you for a day that made you miss the Webicon before last."

Freddie gave him a brief nod as he answered, "Yep."

The others at the table glance to him, but he responded with a shrug of his shoulders and an innocent expression on his face, "I'm a long time fan. I know these things."

Dusty picked up, "Why? Why would they even consider letting her out after only what? A year and a half?"

Freddie lifted a hand and stated with a careless tone about the whole thing, "I don't know and I really don't care. Carly wanted me to come up and testify that they shouldn't let her out. She's terrified they'll let her out. I don't understand why she's so concern; Sam can easily deal with Nora if she shows up. Sam can fight it out with the best of them and has super-strength on top of it. She'll simply break Nora in two in a straight up fight."

Dusty blinked and asked for confirmation as he face expressed his doubts that he heard correctly, "Puckett has what? Did you say she has 'super-strength'?"

André spoke up while lifting up his right arm from his crossed arms resting on the table, "Sam someway, somehow has super-strength. She can beat Freddie arm wrestling without breaking a sweat and what?" He looked to Freddie for confirmation, "Can throw you over her shoulder?"

Jade took in a sharp breath as she remembered the last time Sam threw Freddie over her shoulder the dirty blonde nearly gave him a concussion and dislocated his shoulder. The fear quickly turned to rage, but she pushed it down as she didn't want to deal with it again at the moment.

He chuckled darkly with his answer, "As in getting me on her shoulder and can carry me while running… I don't have a clue how she does it."

Dusty remained silent with a stoic expression as he looked at the tech producer.

Freddie nodded his head and raised a hand as he continued, "I know, I know it sounds crazy, but it's the truth."

The Southern teenager paused for a moment and looked down at the candy in the center of the table then back to his right past Jade to look at Freddie and dryly comment, "So Puckett being an average size teenage girl has repeatedly shown to you to have superhuman strength with no possible natural explanation…" Dusty frowned and asked with a bit of concern in his voice, "I thought all the slayers were either dead or had been exorcised."

Tori, Trina, André and Beck looked to him with confused expressions while Cat looked to him with blank expression. Jade looked to him with a smirk as Robbie and Rex were quietly arguing with one another about their hand or something.

Dusty looked at them with a dumbfounded expression and retorted with a flippant tone, "What? You can't have a bunch of demon possessed girls running around thinking they're the end all and be all of what's right and wrong and willing to use their superpowers to back it up. I don't see the difference between them and whatever else comes out of Hell to get us to screw ourselves over or just torment us with their version of right and wrong."

Jade slightly tilted her head to the side with a faint smile and raised an eyebrow acknowledging that he had two valid points. In her mind, that description seemed to fit Sam about tormenting others.

Freddie cracked a small smile at his friend and blew out a breath then answered, "Anyway… I'm not going obviously. I'm not worrying about it. Nora is not going to spoil my New Years. If she wants to come looking for me after she gets out, well—"

Jade interrupted with a stern voice, "I'll make her regret it."

Dusty blew out a breath and softly chuckled, "Remember what I told you about girl fights: they never end pretty."

The dark brunette chuckled darkly, "Yeah, that's why Sam had her scar."

The web-master raised a curious eyebrow at the statement. He leaned slightly over to the girl that was sitting next to him and asked for confirmation of what he just heard, "_You're _the one that gave her the scar?"

Jade was just about to answer when Freddie cleared his throat and looked down at his cards. She glanced at him then wearily looked down at her own cards.

The Southern teenager glanced all around to see the hesitant and worried expressions on all the attendees' faces. It was clear to him that they knew most if not all of the story which didn't surprise the teenager as they were Freddie's friends. He put on a smile and tried to reassure them, "I know I'm the odd man out about what happened."

Freddie began with a guilty tone, "Dusty—"

He raised his right hand and reassured the tech producer, "It's alright. It's none of my business about what happened. That's a story between you and your friends. Since who gave Puckett the scar isn't really known, I'm not going to say anything."

The tech producer started thinking over what the webmaster said as Jade gave her boyfriend a concerned expression as she could see that he was going deep in thought. She felt a little odd prickle inside from his comment as he didn't expect anything in return including that level of trust from his favors and loyalty to the couple. She suddenly remembered Freddie relaying that the L.A. immigrant had initially refused to accept any Christmas gift from Freddie on the grounds that it could be construe that that he had done everything about arranging posting her movie, helping with the interview with Nevel and keeping an eye on the web-critic. He was just an enigma to her as Tori and Freddie use to be to her.

The awkward silence was finally broken with Rex speaking up, "Are we going to play or just stare at each other?"

Beck answered, "Right?" He quickly glanced at his cards and dropped several pieces of candy in the pot and finished, "I bet five reds."

After another few hands were played, André commented before taking a sip from his water bottle, "I'm getting hunger. Anyone have any ideas?"

Dusty suggested with an upward nod of his head, "Pizza is always a good standby food. We could make a quick run up to get a few."

The songsmith shrugged a shoulder and replied, "Sounds like a plan."

Cat spoke up happily as she laid a soft hand on Dusty's forearm, "If we're going to get food then we got to get some desert."

The longer haired actor replied without missing a beat and stood up, "I'll go to Freezie Queen and get us all something."

Trina was about to say something, but Jade was quicker and spoke up with a casual voice that Freddie could hear the slight edge of her forcing her voice, "I'll go with you. You'll need the extra hands."

Apparently, Beck heard it in her voice as well and gave her a quick glace with a furled brow, but answered as he really couldn't fault her logic, "Sure."

The dark brunette nodded her head and stood up to follow him while André, Dusty, Cat and Robbie decided that they were all going to head for the pizzeria. Tori, Trina and Freddie remained seated as the others quickly filed out to head for their respected vehicles.

"I'll be up in my room," Trina called out as she stood up from her chair and quickly cut through the kitchen and living room to head up the stairs.

Tori shook her head at seeing her sister ditch them, but Freddie wore a soft smile. He commented as she turned to face him, "Just us two in the meantime."

"I guess so," she blew out a breath and rolled her eyes still annoyed at Trina.

Freddie snorted out a soft breath and answered, "I'm kind of glad, because I need to talk to you."

"Oh?" the brunette answered with a raised eyebrow.

Freddie got up from his seat and walked around to take André's vacant seat beside her as he answered, "Yeah… it's really… important and I need to talk to someone about it."

Tori turned her seat and rested her right forearm on the table to support her wait as he looked at him with a concerned expression on her face, but a reassuring smile. "I'm right here Freddie."

He cleared his throat and glance down to break eye contact with her for a moment as he commented, "Yeah… it's redundant to say, but… it has been a hard road for me to get here."

The brunette whispered softly sensing that they really were about to have a deep conversation similar to when they were in Lane's office after the fallout with the whole dressing up like Jade and André's love song to her, "Yeah it has."

He let a relieved smile form on his face as he spoke, "But I wanted to let you know, that over Christmas I've finally came to peace with everything that's happened. I'll always have a few regrets about how some things have turned out, but they're not going to stop me from being happy or weigh me down anymore."

She rested her left hand on his upper right arm and smiled trying to give him support.

He gave her a grateful nod and continued, "I realized something else: I'm happy with my life here and everyone here." His smile grew bigger as he rested his hand on top of Tori's right hand resting on the card table and finished, "Especially with my friends."

She gave him a bashful smile and could feel her happiness for him tug on her own heartstrings.

He blew out a tired breath. "I may still have a few problems to work out: finish settling everything between me and Carly about if we're going to be friends now, getting my mother to accept everything that's happened, let Sikowitz drink some of his coconut milk and get one of his visions so everything will be fine with us after New Years, maybe really being fine with Beck, but I can't remember being this happy in a long time. I think finally everything is going my way and I'm going to have a great fresh start with this New Year. I think I'm finally whole again."

The brunette let a bright smile form on her face and could feel a familiar sensation around her eyes. The rise of emotion in her chest seeped in her voice as she whispered, "I'm glad to hear it. I know Jade must be happy to hear it."

Freddie let out a soft chuckle and corrected the singer, "Actually I haven't told Jade. You're the first person I've told."

Tori blinked and asked with obvious confusion, "Ah, why? Why haven't you told her?"

The tech producer grinned and sat up straighter as he pulled way his hand still resting on top of her hand. "Because I needed to say it out loud to someone and you're my friend, but why haven't I told Jade? I'm going to tell her at the New Year's Eve party, specifically at midnight to celebrate and let her know… let her know that I've finally found the words to tell her how I really feel about her."

She was expectantly curious as she asked, "You don't do that now?"

He looked down bashfully for a moment then looked to her somewhat hesitantly, "We have our own way to say how we deeply we feel for one another. We knew that the night… you know the night we…"

She bowed her head slightly getting his message and whispered, "I know."

He spoke with a reverence in his voice, "We couldn't find the words to say how much we had grown to mean to one another over that three weeks at the workshop since we were still hurting from our losses. Beck had her heart and Carly still had mine, as broke as they both were, but I've finally found them… I'm going to tell her I love her at midnight and that's how we are going to start the New Year. She's going to go into the New Year knowing that I can finally say those words and mean them: 'I love her'."

The actress was hesitant to ask, but she be neglecting her duties as a friend if she didn't, "What if she can't say it back?"

Freddie answered with a confident smile, "It's fine. What are the chances that we would come to the same conclusion at the same time? It will be alright and we'll be great."

Tori smiled at her friend and she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and pulled him into a hug. "I'm happy for the both of you."

He wrapped his arms around her small frame and replied just as warmly, "Thanks Tori."

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Okay, a lot happened in this chapter (with another reference to another show) and a lot more is to come in the next one, so be on the lookout for it on Friday. It's really the second half of this important chapter. Thanks to everyone that reads and reviews, OneHorseShay.<p> 


	31. Chapter 31: Who I am Part 2

Author's Note: Hello everyone. I know this chapter is late, but I needed to take some extra time looking it over and editing it. It is a REALLY important chapter after all and I hope you all enjoy it. This is the one that I would really appreciate if you would take the time to review. Thanks.

Special Guest Appearance by Jennifer Connelly as Mrs. Ruby West

Guest star Quinn Friedman as Ian West (Yes, I'm recasting the actor Quinn from Jade with Tots as her little stepbrother and who knew the kid's name really is Quinn?)

daytrigg: Thank you and I appreciate the love. I'm going to try to get back on to it in the next week or so. I know it has been a while. Too long.

Twilight Warrior 627: Thanks. Mrs. West's motivations can best be understood from one of my other stories: iGet My Second Chance somewhere in Chapter 19 of the story.

Daytrigg and Twilight: What's a buffy? (Besides, Faith is the last, true Slayer) :P

CartoonistGirl6: Thanks and here is the next chapter.

The Reading Wizard: I'm glad that you found these two stories and that you are enjoying them. Let your friends know about them if you're inclined. I hope this chapter meets your standard of special quality.

BushwellFanNYC: I think you summed up Dusty pretty well with 'prickly'. He wasn't really comfortable being there from the start as he felt Cat was imposing him into the group and he's sitting with a group that is made up of his ex-girlfriend that he obviously still has feelings for and looks like still figuring out how to handle them, Freddie and Jade that are his borderline friends, three people he really doesn't know except in passing, Robbie which he does not like and for him with very good reason and he doesn't respect Beck as a man. Friction was bound to happen and you also inadvertently predicted something in this chapter about Dusty as well. Kudos to you for spotting that.

I think that is everybody and I'm sorry if I missed anybody. Send me a PM and I'll be happy to answer any question that I missed. Well, on with the story.

Reiterate the T warning (and I'm pushing it): Language and Violence

* * *

><p>Chapter 31: "Who I am… Part 2"<p>

Beck's GTO  
>In Route to Freezie Queen<p>

Beck propped his head up with a closed fist and arm braced against his driver's side door as he had one hand on top of the wheel. He raised a curious eye brow as he glanced over to his ex-girlfriend and asked with a bit of a laugh, "So why the tag along?"

The pale dark brunette glanced over to him with a somewhat offended expression and responded with a nearly flippant tone, "What? I just can't ride with you to get ice cream?"

He grinned and shook his head as he felt far more patient than he use to feel for her shortness. He answered with a warm tone, "You're always welcome to do that, but that's not why you offered to come with me. I don't think you're that eager for ice cream."

"You sure about that?" she switched to asking with a playfully challenging voice. "Maybe I really want my ice cream before everyone else?"

He straightened his head and placed his other hand back on the wheel before giving a slight nod of his head as he turned a corner and answered, "Yes. I could hear it in your voice."

Jade turned her head to look at him and rested her elbow against the passenger and rested her head against her palm. "Okay, maybe I do have an ulterior motive for riding along."

"Oh?" He smirked to her with a charming smile that would drive the ladies wild and continued, "Would you care to tell me or are you going to make me guess?"

She swallowed nervously and lifted her head off her palm. She glanced at him nervously as he kept his eyes on the road. She waited a few moments until he stopped at a light to finally answer, "It's about Freddie."

Beck maintained is composure to hide his curiosity as he answered, "What about him?"

She took another deep breath then whispered with a bit of regret, not for what she was going to say, but how she thought he could react, "I'm going to tell him I love him."

Beck took in a sharp breath that surprised even himself and blinked several times in response. He cleared his throat as he focused his attention at the red traffic light and tried to respond in a casual tone to attempt to cover at least some of his shock, "Is that a big deal? I mean, don't you already tell him that?" His mind wanted to instantly start processing that clearly shocking revelation that apparently Freddie didn't tell her that, all the ramifications of such a thing and the possibilities for the future, but he had to keep his focus on the road and on her next words.

Jade paused for a moment then whispered, "No, I don't. We… don't say that to one another. We have our own way of telling each other we care… we were both too heartbroken when we got together to be able to say it to one another and mean it, so I've never told him that in that way and he hasn't to me yet."

The traffic light finally turned green and Beck lightly tapped the accelerator to get the vehicle moving forward. Jade patiently waited for him to respond as she turned her attention forward and he put on a casual front as he continued driving them to Freezie Queen.

The longer haired teenager took a breath and slowly released it as they were making the final leg of the trip to the ice place. He was trying to maintain his laidback tone, but Jade could hear the cracks in his voice, "Why tell me? Why not just go ahead and tell him?"

Her mouth became a thin line for a moment and her eyes looked upon him with a sympathetic expression as she answered him, "I needed you to know… know that just because I can say that to him now doesn't mean that I didn't love you, because I did and I'll always love you… that's why it's taken me so long to be able to say it to him."

The actor took a few slow breaths as he processed what she had spoken and focused completely on the road.

Jade turned her attention back to the front to look where Beck was driving. She whispered barely loud enough for him to hear, "I'm truly sorry for all the pain I put you through. I know how difficult I could be to be with." She watched carefully as it looked to her that he was ignoring her as he continued focus on his driving.

After about a minute or so they reached Freezie Queen and he parked his muscle car. He turned off the ignition then put on a small, but warm smile as he reached over with his right hand and softly rested it on top of her left hand. He looked her directly into her yes and responded with a slightly content voice, "I'm happy for you Jade."

She broke into a relieved smile then reached over to wrap her arms around the back of his neck and pull him into a hug. She whispered into his right ear, "Thank you."

He let a smile form on his face even if he felt a small ache in his chest. He patted her on the back and replied, "You're welcome."

As she pulled away, she brushed along his right cheek and left a soft kiss on the corner of his mouth. They looked at each for a few moments as Jade let out a relieved breath as he continued to smile at her. She relaxed back in her seat and undid her seatbelt. He casually asked as he was undoing his seatbelt, "When are you going to tell him?"

The seatbelt retracted away from her shoulder as she answered with a warm smile, "New Years… actually at midnight. I think it be a nice way to start off the New Year. You know new beginnings? Maybe for all of us? I know there will be plenty of ladies trying for you at the party."

He let out a genuine laugh as he retorted, "As long as I can dodge Trina."

She joined in his laughter then gave a slight nod and offered, "No argument from me on that."

A part of him wanted to sarcastically reply that would be a first and ironic since she could do that now that they weren't together. Fortunately, she spoke up before he slipped in saying something, "I guess we better get that ice cream now."

"Yeah," he answered as his laughter died down. The pair exited his GTO at the same time and Jade walked around the front to head for the entrance of the ice cream shop/restaurant, but Beck was a little slower in his stride until he just stopped at the front fender of the car.

The pale singer noticed that he wasn't beside her after a few steps then looked over her right shoulder and asked with a curious tone, "Are you coming?"

He slipped his hand into his jean pocket and pulled out his PearPhone to hold up and show her. He explained after a soft snort and light smile, "Yeah, just… let me send a quick text message to André and Tori to see what flavor the rest and Freddie want. We forgot to ask before leaving."

She nodded a long and smiled to her ex, but still dear friend.

The actor blew out a soft breath through his nose as the dark brunette entered the shop and door closed behind the pale actress. He looked down and immediately started typing quickly a text message. He mumbled under his breath as he typed clearly and without any abbreviations, "I need to talk to you later tonight. It's VERY important."

* * *

><p>Several hours later of food (with Freddie being extremely particular about how he properly prepared his slices of pizza that it was comical) and more Texas Hold'em at Tori and Trina's home, Jade pulled her and Freddie up into the Wests' driveway. Jade and Freddie didn't waste anytime getting out of the vehicle and their way up to the kitchen entrance as the screenwriter put her car in park and killed the ignition. The dark brunette was the first one inside.<p>

She was immediately greeted by her mother in the kitchen preparing herself a snack: Mrs. West looked over her shoulder and smiled at the couple. "Hey," she greeted them as she stepped away from the kitchen island and pulled Jade into a quick hug. "Have a good time?"

Freddie answered, "Yes ma'am; it was a blast—"

The green streaked haired teenager let out a soft laugh as she interrupted, "And had some lively conversations too." She looked to the former Seattleite and suggested, "I think we should invite Dusty to the next game. He's great at distracting everyone from their game; more candy for us?" She raised her pierced eyebrow as she finished, "Rex and Robbie were the worst I've ever seen after he suggested that Rex could be a possessed or Robbie's son and that's saying something."

One of Freddie's eyebrows shot up from surprise that she would suggest such a thing. He cautiously asked with a mixture of curiosity, "Is that such a good idea? He didn't seem to click with the rest and… you weren't upset about… you know him bring up… about Beck? I kind of wondered."

Mrs. West's attention was peaked at the question and tried to appear she was turning back to prepare her sandwich instead of listening to her daughter's response.

"It felt a little awkward just because it was bringing up some of our past problems, but I learned from him when I was doing the interview with Nevel that is just the way he is… I guess he saw it as defending me and Cat as he would say and refusing to make any apologizes about it to Beck. You kind of guessed right about that stereotype." She shrugged a shoulder nonchalantly and finished, "I don't scare him." She took a step closer to her boyfriend and smirked as she looked into his eyes. "It kind of reminds me of another guy."

Freddie snorted out a laugh and shook his head. She bowed her head slightly down and joined him in a bit of brief laughter.

Mrs. West looked away to hide her own smile at seeing the joy the couple were sharing. She only turned around as she heard her voice call to her, "So, how's your afternoon been mom?"

The West Matriarch smiled and shrugged a shoulder as she finished preparing her sandwich. "Relaxing… ah… your dad called."

Jade was obviously curious about the call as she wasn't exaggerating that he spent most of his time with his new wife and barely spared the time to call. "What did he want?"

"Well Ian has been insisting on wanting to see you over the break since he didn't get to see on you on Christmas. Your father had the idea that maybe he could come over and you two could spend some time together."

Jade blinked at the information then looked to her boyfriend with an unsure expression of how she should respond to the news.

Freddie smiled as he was glad that she hadn't dismissed Ian's request out of hand as he knew that she still struggled with wanting to put the blame and resentment on him and his mother for her father's lack of concern (and disapproval) of her. He snapped his fingers quickly then suggested, "I have a thought. We could go to the movies after I get off of work tomorrow. There has to be some kid movie that he would love to see playing and I'd like to relax after my last day of work for the year."

Jade wanted to roll her eyes at the suggestion, but the look in Freddie's eyes told her that he was quite serious with his suggestion. As she took the moment to think it over, she really didn't have a reason to shoot it down. Her brother apparently wanted to see her and a good part of her (and was trying her best to listen to) still thought Freddie was right about not blaming him for her father's conduct. She gave the briefest of nods then answered, "Okay, it sounds like a fine idea. I'll go call my dad." She turned and headed back to the kitchen and presumably up to her room.

Ruby looked to Freddie with surprise.

He shrugged his shoulder with a smile. "I guess she really bonded with him during Thanksgiving."

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Thursday, December 29, 2011

The time was a little before five in the afternoon when Freddie opened the front door to see Mister West with Ian standing to his right, holding the child's hand. The tech producer gave Jade's father a respective nod of his head as he greeted him, "Mister West."

The taller man responded with a tight smile as he looked upon the young man that his mind instantly associated with another individual he did not care for, "Mister Benson."

Freddie ignored the disapproving look from the man's eyes and looked down to the smiling preschooler and greeted him with a cheerful tone, "Hey little guy."

"Hi Freddie."

Jade quickly walked up behind Freddie and looked to her father. Father and daughter looked to one another for a few moments until Jade spoke, "Dad."

He acknowledged with a nod of his head, "Jade."

Ian let go of his stepfather's hand and wrapped his arms around Jade's legs and looked up at the dark brunette with a grinning smile. She looked down at him with an apprehensive expression as her feelings about the child were still in a tug-of-war with themselves. In her heart, she pushed away any form of resentment and anger and knelt down to the child that had the sense to let go of her legs. She put on a smile and hugged the child which he was eager to wrap his arms around the back of her neck.

He whispered into the teenager's ear, "Hey Jadey."

"Hey Sweetheart," she returned just as easily. She pulled slightly back to meet his eyes, but kept her arms wrapped around his back to hold him close. She found that the smile came easier and more natural since they parted ways at Thanksgiving. She thought of the most logical thing to say at the moment even if all the emotions weren't there yet, "Looking forward to going to the movies with your big sister?"

He grinned and nodded his head. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a breaded wristband similar to the one that Freddie wore on his left wrist, but with various colors that were obviously pretty to a small child. "Merry Christmas."

She hesitantly took the gift from him then looked up at his eyes with a fearful expression as she hadn't gotten anything for the child. She cleared her throat and put on a crooked smile. She whispered a moment later, "Thank you."

Ian took the bracelet out of her finger tips then grabbed her left wrist. He started tying the ends after wrapping it around her wrist. The pale teenager wore a hesitant look as he finished tying the ends like he was tying his shoes, messy, but adequate to keep around her wrist. He looked up at her with his innocent smile and asked, "Do you like it?"

She broke into a real smile and answered, "I love it." She wrapped her arms around him again and pulled him close for another hug.

* * *

><p>As everyone gathered in the garage, Mister West insisted on installing the child safety seat in the back of Jade's car himself and placed his stepson securely in the seat. He looked to the child and smiled as he spoke, "I'll see you in a few hours."<p>

"Okay. Bye daddy."

He smiled at the child and gave him a kiss on the forehead. In the background Jade clenched her jaw tight to hold back any emotions that flared up.

Ruby glanced towards her daughter and saw the conflict and hurt in her eyes. She mourned over her daughter's pain, yet felt pride that she hadn't given into the easy feeling of hating this child that was taking so much of her father's attention. Even years after the divorce, she still had mixed feelings about her ex-husband, but she didn't hold any animosity towards his new wife or his stepson.

Mister West turned away from his stepson and looked to Jade. He gave her a serious expression as he spoke, "Now Jade—"

Ruby interrupted, "Save the lecture Roy. He'll be fine with her. If you don't believe that then go ahead and take him back home."

He looked up and gave his ex-wife an annoyed expression, but of course she wasn't bothered by it for one moment. If there was ever a time he thought he could intimidate her, it was during their divorce and his attempt to get custody of Jade and he had learned quite quickly never to try again. She had no intention of listening him lecture her child about the responsibility of looking after Ian while he was in her care.

Mister West looked to his daughter and instructed, "I expect him be back by eight o'clock."

Jade assured him, "We'll call if we run late."

He gave a nod then turned to give a brief wave at his son then headed for his own car in the driveway.

The dark brunette looked to her mother and gave a grateful smile. Once her father was in his vehicle and pulling out of the driveway, she walked around to the driver's side backseat. She doubled checked the child safety seat was secure to the back seat then raised her head to make sure that Ian was completely fastened in his seat for her own piece of mind. He smiled at her as she went through her double checking and she wore a crooked smile as she could feel his eyes on her.

Freddie called out behind his girlfriend to Ian, "You got a pretty stylish seat don't you buddy."

"Yep," he answered with an eager nod of his head and looked over Jade's shoulder as the child's safety seat resembled a seat installed in a professional racing car.

Jade softly patted the child on the chest and let herself give a natural smile to him, "There, you are all set." She took a step back and shut the door. She opened her driver's side door and Freddie walked around to get into the passenger seat. They respectfully put on their seatbelts then Jade pressed the button for the window to come down. "See you later mom."

Mrs. West raised a hand to wave them off.

Jade looked over her shoulder to make sure the traffic was clear before she slowly backed the vehicle as Freddie put up her window. Once she was in the road, she started down it on their way to the movie theater.

Less than a minute into their ride, Ian asked Jade, "Why are you driving?"

Jade blinked as she was caught off guard by the question, but maintained her eyes on the road, "What?"

The child explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Daddy usually drives and mommy rides in the other seat."

Freddie laughed as the unintentional comparison was made about the couple. He looked over his shoulder and answered with a laugh, "Because this is your sister's car, so she drives and she has fantastic night vision we'll need after the movie since it'll probably be dark when we get out."

Jade slightly shook her head and put a smile on her face as she commented sweetly, "I love driving at night."

He turned his attention to his sister's boyfriend and asked the next logical question, "Where's your car?"

Freddie snorted out a breath and grinned, "Mine's in the shop… it got a little broken and they're fixing it. My door got a little banged up."

Ian seemed to accept that explanation.

Before he could ask any other questions, Freddie asked with a cheerful voice, "So what movie are we going to see?"

Ian happily shouted, "I want to see the Chipmunks."

Jade forced herself not to roll her eyes as she instantly started to imagine the sound of their squeaky voices for the next hour and a half to two hours in her head, but she made sure to keep her focus completely on the road not only for their safety, but so that her step-brother would not see her reaction.

Freddie suppressed a smile at seeing his girlfriend's reaction. "Okay, we'll see the chipmunks."

The dark brunette with green streaks in her hair quickly threw him a disapproving look before focusing back on the road.

He chuckled as he looked over his shoulder and commented, "We might have to get your sister some earplugs."

Ian instantly started chuckling at his sister's potential misery and Jade immediately felt for the first time of that sense of annoyance that a younger sibling can bring on their older siblings.

Premier Movie Theater  
>Los Angeles, CA<p>

About fifteen minutes later, Jade pulled her vehicle into a parking spot at the movie theater and turned off the ignition. She unbuckled her seatbelt as Freddie did the same as she was eager to get into the movie as the sooner it got started, the sooner it would be over. The pale singer quickly exited her side and walked around and opened the passenger door. She unbuckled Ian from the seat and helped him hop out of the safety seat and safely on his feet on the parking lot. She immediately took his left hand into her larger one and shut the door behind her. He smiled up at her and she found it easy to smile back at him.

Freddie smiled to the pair, but refrained from saying anything as he didn't want to interrupt the moment between stepsiblings as he knew Jade was trying her best to cope with the completely unfamiliar circumstances she was experiencing and the emotional baggage that came with it due to her father's actions. He walked over and offered his hand for Ian to take, which the child eagerly took.

The teenagers and child quickly entered through the glass doors of the theater and mad their way to the ticket counter as it was designed nearly identical to the one that Helen use to manage in San Diego. Once the trio reached the ticket booth, Jade asked the young blonde woman that didn't look much older than the teenagers, "Three tickets to—" Jade nearly choked on her words for a moment before finishing, "five thirty showing of Alvin and the Chipmunks."

The cashier smiled at the three and especially down at Ian as she typed on her touch-screen while a neighboring one rolled her eyes and shook her head in disgust.

Jade noticed the look the other and furled her brow as she gave the neighboring woman a deep frown. "What?"

The woman blinked as she was caught off guard for a moment from actually being called out on her gesture.

The dark brunette asked with an edge to her voice, "You have a problem with me taking my little brother to the movies?"

The cashier didn't respond, but nervously focused on the next person in line at her station.

Jade snorted in trumpet with a smirk on her face as she turned back to presumptive college student. She handed Jade the tickets as Freddie had paid while Jade was distracted.

As the couple walked with the child between them to the concession stand, she looked to him with a look of annoyance. "What?"

He leaned over and whispered into her right ear, "I think they thought he's our son."

She pulled her head slightly away from him and put on a deep frown as she asked in disbelief, "What? I had him at thirteen?"

He slightly shook his head and answered with a humorous tone, "I hate to be the first to tell you this, but there are thirteen year olds having children."

She slightly tilted her head and eyed him with an irritated expression knowing quite well of that occurrence.

He gave her a bashful smile and a shrug of his shoulders.

Ian stared up at the couple wondering why people would think that Jadey and her boyfriend were his mommy and daddy.

Jade blew out a tired breath as she reached the concession stand and saw the familiar concession stand attendee from the summer that bared a striking resemblance to Spencer. He smiled goofily at them then looked down at the smiling child. He started rattling off all the things they had to offer and suggesting some ridiculous amounts of popcorn and candy to give to Ian.

Freddie let out a soft laugh and covered his mouth with his free hand at what he was saying and seeing a little bit of Spencer's goofiness in the man.

Jade couldn't help but think back on all the health problems she had said to the tots in her video and she had a sudden flare of irritation that he would suggest giving such things to her little brother.

The attendee laughed as he then offered holding a popcorn tub large enough for several people, "Then we have the jumbo-jumbo popcorn you can—"

"NO!" Jade snapped at him with a sharp tone and harsh stare. Her shout garnered the attention of several other people around them.

The Spencer look alike quickly shut his mouth. The withdrawn look on his face showed his evident fear of the dark brunette.

Ian looked up at his sister a little concerned with her reaction.

Jade continued with a tone that brokered no argument, "Smallest soda and smallest popcorn for him and don't you dare put too much butter on it."

Freddie raised a finger as he added, "Medium popcorn and medium drink for me and I'll take some Skittles."

The taller man turned to quickly fill the order with obvious tension to his movements. Less than thirty seconds later, he handed the small popcorn to Jade. She bent down and handed the small bag to Ian and whispered, "Here Sweetheart." He gladly accepted then she accepted the small drink to carry for him. A few moments later Freddie accepted his popcorn and drink and paid him.

A few minutes later they were in their seats and the previews started rolling. Most of the previews were for other family oriented movies that didn't interest the pale teenager at all then it only got worst for her. The movie began and the chipmunks' voices instantly grated on her nerves.

She glanced over to see that Ian sitting on her right was enamored by the sights on screen and surprisingly Freddie sitting on the other side of Ian getting into the spirit as he was sipping on his straw staring at the screen. She blew out a breath through her nose and leaned to her left to rest her cheek on her closed fist. She knew it could be worst; she could be sitting with Cat and she would be singing along… in the chipmunk voice instead of her natural one.

* * *

><p>Jade was happy when the movie finally ended as she felt the slight headache coming on while she held on to Ian's left hand and the trio exited the theater. As they reached the lobby, she asked Ian with a happy tone that she didn't have to force that much to cover her irritation of having to sit through such a movie, "So what do you want to do now?"<p>

He laughed and cheerfully suggested, "I want ice cream."

Freddie smiled up to Jade as she looked to him for his opinion and repeated, "Ice cream."

The dark brunette took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She slowly let her breath out of her nose then opened her eyes while putting on a _somewhat_ cheery expression. "Ice cream it is."

Freezie Queen  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Thursday, December 29, 2012

Freddie laughed softly as he held the glass door open for Jade and Ian to walk inside hand in hand. The blue streaked hair teenager always holding on to the child's hand had not escaped the teenager's notice. He wasn't sure if it was purely to make sure he wouldn't run off if something grabbed his attention or maybe some deeper maternal interest expressing itself.

The three walked to the counter and ice cream display. She looked down at smiling tot and asked with a soft voice, "Which flavor do you want?"

Freddie noticed the attendee giving a passing glance at the three as even in L.A. some things did grab some people's attention. He guessed they were use to teenager with babies, but not at the age difference of Jade and Ian and making the same conclusions as they cashier at the Premiere.

However this time, Jade didn't notice any looks as Ian looked to the glass and stood on his tiptoes to try to see all the variety of ice cream flavors offered. She knelt down behind him and gave him a slight lift so he could see into the glass covering of the various ice cream flavors. The stepsiblings were cheek to cheek as Jade rested her chin in his right shoulder as he looked over the various flavors. A hint of a smile formed on Jade's lips as Ian scanned the variety of flavors with his eyes until he poked his small pointer finger onto the glass and picked good old fashion chocolate.

She stood up then ordered, "We'll take a small cup of the chocolate and I'll have one of your MooLatté Frozen Blended Coffees." She looked to Freddie with a questioning eyebrow as if he wanted anything. He slightly lifted his chin and answered distractedly as he had paid more attention to Jade's sisterly affections for the child, "I'll take a medium size cup of vanilla ice cream with fudge topping and sprinkles."

She smirked at his choice and he replied with a soft laugh, "Have to live a little."

The three took a booth with Ian sitting on the inside next to Jade and Freddie sitting across from the pair. Ian happily ate on his ice cream while Jade took the occasional spoonful of her soft served ice and coffee blend as she was paying more attention to the child with a strange sense of fascination.

Freddie casually ate on his ice cream as he watched Jade. He could tell that she wasn't irritated, just a little confused on how exactly she was supposed to act. He was obviously quite aware of her mixed reaction with children in her 'Jade with Tots' videos going from truly curious and sweet to down right irritated along with the story about her annoyance in performing for a children's birthday party dressed up as a giant hamburger. Apparently Ian wasn't irritating her or she really pushed away any negative feelings. Regardless of either explanation, he could see and more importantly sensed that she was trying to give it a real shot at having a relationship with her stepbrother with this first step. She was just still trying to figure out exactly how she did such a thing.

A few minutes into their sweets, Jade spoke up, "I have to go to the bathroom." She looked to Ian and instructed him in a firm voice, "You stay with Freddie. You don't leave the booth. If you have to go to the bathroom again, Freddie will take with you. Understood?"

He nodded his head as he looked up to her blue eyes.

"Okay," she whispered with an uncertain tone then scooted out of the both. She smiled at Freddie with a quick pat on his right shoulder.

The tot looked to Freddie and stated, "Jadey can be…" He trailed off as being four years old he didn't have the vocabulary describe Jade.

Freddie gave him an uncertain smile as he responded, "Yeah, but… she can be very nice and sweet too, huh?"

Ian thought for a moment then eagerly nodded, "She listened to me talk about dinosaurs and got me popcorn and a soda and ice cream."

Freddie smiled warmly as she asked, "And do you know why?"

He looked to Freddie with a confused expression for a moment then asked, "She loves me?"

The brown eyed teenager gave him a smirk as he answered, "Yes she does… she just… has a hard time showing it. I think she's still getting use to having a little brother. I don't have any siblings, so I don't know what kind of brother I would be."

The child surprisingly understood as he had only dealt with his friends' siblings, but he didn't care much for them and Jade was turning out a lot better than them.

Freddie leaned over to the child and whispered, "Can you keep a secret for me?"

He quickly nodded his head.

Freddie grinned as confessed, "I love your sister too."

Ian let out a soft laugh then turned back to his ice cream.

* * *

><p>Jade glanced at the car clock displaying ten minutes until eight o'clock as she drove the trio to her father's house.<p>

Freddie looked out of his passenger side window at the passing scenery in the higher end neighborhood. He realized that her father must have done well to move out here and start a new family since he had a feeling (as he never asked either Jade or Mrs. West) that after the divorce, Mrs. West was not the one that moved out and into another home. He let out a slow breath as he confessed the thought that had been in the back of his mind since seeing Jade double check Ian's car seat before they left for the movie, "You'll be a good mother one day."

She snapped her head to look at him with a shocked expression.

He quickly spoke, "Eyes on road please."

She instantly complied as he finished, "Yes, I do realize how awkward it could be for _me _to say it since, well… we're together and it takes two to have a child, but it's the truth."

She nodded along as she really didn't know how to process his confidence in her. She looked up to the rearview mirror to look at Ian asleep in his seat as he trip and coming off the sugar had worn him out for a nap. As cheesy as it may have been to her, he looked adorable sleeping in the backseat. She passed the quickest of glances to Freddie as she commented in a solemn voice, "You'll be a good father one day."

The pale singer saw from the corner of her eye a small, but uncertain smile formed on his face. She hoped that even if he didn't have faith in himself at the moment, he had faith in her that she was speaking the truth.

They arrived in Mister West's drive way a few minutes later and Jade put the car in park. She was the first one out and around to the rear passenger side door. She opened the car door then carefully unbuckled the child's harness without waking the browned headed child. She gently pushed his left shoulder with her right pointer and middle finger. "Time to wake up Ian. You're home." The child ignored her as he was resting peacefully in his seat and really didn't want to be disturbed.

Freddie suggested from behind the leaning over teenager, "Maybe I should just pick him up and carry him inside to his mom. I can come back for the seat in a minute."

Jade shook her head no then looked back to her stepbrother. She scooped him up in her arms and stepped away from the seat. She had right forearm under his bottom and her other arm around his back to rest on his left shoulder as he immediately used her right shoulder as a pillow. She looked to Freddie to see him trying to hold back a smirk.

She whispered with a slight furl of her brow, "Not a word."

He couldn't resist but to break out into a full grin, but he raised his hands up in surrender.

The singer's irritation faded way as she looked past him to see her father and his new wife standing outside the entrance of their home. She looked back to Freddie and whispered out, "Why does he love him more than me Freddie?"

Freddie took a sharp breath from the question then slowly let it out as he met her eyes. He could see that she was fighting the moister forming in her eyes and her jaw tightening to put up a blank expression. This was a case where she didn't want to show him any weakness, especially since she knew that her father was just several yards behind her boyfriend. He lifted his right hand to rest on her left shoulder and answered with a hollowed tone, "I don't know… I don't know how a man can't have enough love for all his children. I just know that you don't have to let his moral failing cause you to follow in Cain's jealousy of Abel."

She took in a breath at understanding his meaning and had sense enough to know that he didn't mean that she would do anything like Cain. She turned her head and kissed the child on his right cheek and held him tighter for a moment. She closed her eyes and whispered something into his ear that Freddie couldn't make out, but he had several guesses to what might be the message she was telling her sleeping brother.

He smiled to her and offered, "You sure you don't need me to carry him?"

Jade took a breath and shook her head. She answered with a clipped tone, "I'm fine." She walked past her boyfriend to head to the front door and was surprised how easy it was to carry him in her arms at least for the moment. If she would have to carry him further than the front door then she knew she would have needed Freddie to carry her brother.

Once the couple reached the door, the other Mrs. West smiled and gladly accepted the groggy Ian into her arms.

She smiled at her stepdaughter and asked, "Did you have a good time?"

Jade put on a small smile and answered with a nod of her head, "Yes we did. He really enjoyed the movie and the ice cream."

She smiled one last time to the pale dark brunette and spoke, "Well happy to hear. I'll see you later. I'm going to go ahead and tuck him in."

The dark brunette gave a nod of her head to the woman as she turned to head inside then looked back at her father.

Mister West asked with a casual tone but with a hint of doubt in her voice, "So it really was a pleasant time?"

Jade cracked a smile as she answered, "Yes. We'll have to do this again sometime on the weekend after the New Year."

"Okay, well… you have a pleasant night."

The pale teenager responded with a slightly annoyed tone, "Yeah, you too dad."

"Bye."

She gave him a nod then replied, "Bye."

He turned back to walk inside and shut the door.

Jade stood in place as she took a deep breath and stared at the door for a moment. She tuned the rest of the world out as she was going to let her thoughts and feelings overwhelm her, but Freddie slipped his right hand into her left hand and laced their fingers. She snapped her head to see the smiling face of the young man that cared so much for her.

Freddie whispered, "You'll be a fine mother."

She cracked a small and thankful smile to her brown eye boy.

"Now if you don't mind, I have to bug you dad for forgetting the car seat."

The pale singer chuckled at plan to annoy her father at the same time as helping him.

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>~6:30 P.M., Saturday, December 31, 2011

Freddie enjoyed the last two days off and was quite rested and excited about tonight other than of course ringing in the New Year as he made his way down the stairs to the kitchen. He thought he might feel a little nervous at the prospect of confessing his love to Jade. The last time he had done that for a girl well… it would be an interesting story to tell his grandchildren one day. However, he was confident in his belief and what he was going to tell her. He knew he would always love Carly to a certain extent as she was his first love, but he couldn't let that love chain him to the past. He was going to move on with his life in the area of love and tonight was going to be the night.

He reached the kitchen then glanced into the living room, but all he saw was Mrs. West as she was pulling her own overcoat over her shoulders to get ready to go out for a New Years Eve party with her colleagues at work and other friends. The raven haired beauty smiled to him and greeted, "Hey. Are you ready to go?"

He gave a quick nod as he answered, "Yeah, but I don't see Jade anywhere."

She gave a soft laugh as she answered, "Oh, Jade's waiting for you in the driveway. Sorry your car didn't get back in time." She gave a regretful roll of her eyes as she finished, "Taking off early for New Years… I know they're going to give me a discount over it."

He waved her off. "It's alright. Jade has great night vision anyway. We're going to need it on the way back."

Mrs. West smile as she approached the teenager and answered, "Okay, just stay safe. Watch both of your drinks and watch out for the crazies on the road on your way back. If it's safer to head for Cat's or Vega's house to spend the night, just go ahead and I'll see you next year."

He laughed at her lame joke and retort, "See you next year. Have a good night Mrs. West."

She gave him a quick wave as he turned back towards the kitchen and to the garage exit. He pushed the door open and took the few steps down to reach the ground of the garage. He focused on the floor for a moment until he lifted his head as he walked out of the open garage.

Freddie stopped completely in his tracks at the sight he saw.

Jade had her black hose covered legs crossed under her black (and his favorite) skirt and leaning against the left fender of his Charger with her hands on either side of her to support her. She was beautiful with a warm smile, dark brown locks flowing over her shoulders with her green and blue hair extensions, black tank top and red and black flannel pattern unbutton shirt with rolled up sleeves. That was enough to stop him in his tracks, but what divided his attention was the car she was leaning against.

It was his Charger, but instead of the salvage job he had initially received of a mismatched colored driver side door, dull paint and a few rusty spots, it looked like it had just rolled off the factory floor in nineteen sixty nine. His eyes were wide open and his jaw was a little slack as he slowly approached his girlfriend and the muscle car. Jade bit her bottom lip and grinned as she saw the utter shock on her boyfriend's face.

The vehicle had a crisp black paint job and polished so well that it almost had a mirror finish. The silver chrome outlined the grill and headlights and the hubcaps were replaced. There were no marks of worn paint or little spots of rust, just completely restored. He stopped just in front of her and she motioned her head for him to look inside the vehicle. The former Seattleite glanced at her for another moment then put his head through the opening of the driver's side door to see that the black interior was completely refurbished with the addition of what looked like the addition of the latest audio system. He pulled away from the car and looked to Jade with wide eyes. He tried to mouth words a few times, but failed to form syllables.

She smiled at his lost for words.

He was finally able to mutter as he softly shook his head, "I don't… I don't know what to say."

She slipped her right hand under the flap of his jacket and rested it over his heart. She gave him the warmest of smiles. "Since I've never been good at giving gifts, I'll take you being speechless as a good sign… actually it was mom's idea, but I was on board when I found out. It's our way of trying to make you whole again."

He reached up with his left hand and softly clasped over her hand and took a deep breath. He had to blink several times to keep the tears that were forming in his eyes from falling. The brown eyed teenager had to clear his throat before answering with a straining voice, "A great sign… you do know how to put things back together… you put me back together."

She bowed her head to try to shield the blush on her cheeks. She took a quick breath then motioned to the car with her free hand. "Well, we got to go if we want the best parking… even if Kenan is holding a spot for you. I guess being a famous web-celebrity has its advantages."

Freddie grinned and released her hand. He offered her his right arm and she gladly accepted as she realized that he was going to escort her to the passenger door. He walked around the car with her then opened her door. She easily slid in the passenger seat and quickly put on her seatbelt as he closed the door behind her. He quickly walked around to get into the driver's seat and pull the door close. He looked to her and she handed him the keys that she had hid in her flannel pattern shirt pocket.

He grinned at her then started the ignition. He laughed out as the engine still purred as well as it did before going into the shop. It was the one thing he wasn't surprised about as he knows how good Beck was on engines and doubted that they could have really improved on it as the engine that it came with looked almost pristine from the start.

While he fastened his seatbelt, she hooked up her PearPhone into the new audio system then pressed the button on her phone then the song started playing through the car stereo.

Freddie blinked and looked to his girlfriend with another shocked expression as the song started playing of her singing, _"You've been on my mind, I grow fonder everyday, lose my self in time, just thinking of your face, God only knows, why it has taken me so long to let my doubts go, you'll the only one I want…"_

He pointed to the car radio and redundantly asked, "This is what you sung at Karaoke Dookie?"

She grinned and let out a soft laugh as she answered, "Yeah it is; I recorded it with André earlier in the week while you were at work. I just think of it as one of our songs."

He tried to suppress his grin as if this was the song that she wanted him to have and listen to before they left then he took it as a sign above that she would be receptive of his declaration of 'I love you' as the clock was striking midnight. He couldn't wait to see her face when he said it to her. However, at the moment he would settle with telling her, "Thank you."

She rested her cheek against her closed fist braced against the door and replied, "You'll welcome. Now lets party the night away."

Freddie laughed out loud as he backed up the vehicle and answered, "No arguments from me."

Kenan Thompson's Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>~7 P.M., Saturday, December 31, 2011

The Charger rolled up in the one of the reserved spots that Kenan had specifically sat aside for André and the rest and one specifically for him as Jade had been correct that the SNL star was a fan of Freddie. The couple exited the vehicle with smiles on their respective faces and noticed only a handful of vehicles which they recognized among them as André's modern Charger, Trina's car, Beck's GTO and a red '60s Shelby Mustang.

Freddie offered his right arm to the pale actress and she gladly accepted. They started up the walkway up to the front door then Freddie tapped the doorbell once they reached the entrance to the magnificent home.

As they waited for a moment for someone to answer the door, Jade commented, "This is where we met: at Kenan's house."

The brown eyed teenager nodded his head and smirked as he replied, "That's right… I just hadn't realized it." He looked her up and down and pointed out, "Wasn't that the shirt you were wearing?"

She let out a soft laugh, "Actually, yeah after we got out of the hot tub."

Freddie shook his head and mumbled, "Witches and soup… I think Malika might be a little offended by that."

She raised her pierced eyebrow as she asked, "The girl who's supposed to be magical you took that dance one time?"

Freddie blew out a breath and retorted, "She has _real powers_. She can teleport and empty drinks out of cups and replace them with fireballs. She nearly set my hair on fire."

Jade gave a patient smile and raised a hand as she eagerly answered, "Okay, okay, I believe you… especially with everything that's happened after the last few days."

He retorted with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, "Yeah, I'd hope so, you know… since I'm your boyfriend and all."

She gave a soft laugh as she dropped her hand back on his arm.

He softly rested his left hand on top of her left hand resting on his arm and squeezed it while giving her a smile. "I just want to say before we go in that I think this is going to be a special night for us. I can just feel it… ringing in the New Year together."

She gave him a knowing grin that she only understood for the moment and responded, "I don't doubt that." She leaned forward and cupped his left cheek with her hand and gave him a soft kiss on the lips.

As they pulled away, the door opened to reveal a smiling Tori. "Hey!"

Freddie laughed in cheer as he took a step forward and gave her a quick hug. "Hey yourself."

The brunette led the couple past the foyer and into the expansive living room. The couple glanced around to see only a handful of people in the cleared living room with the DJ and the sound system set up in an identical way it was back in March. André, Beck, Robbie and Rex were up on the platform talking to the DJ that had run the previous party.

Cat wearing a pointed party hat with 2012 displayed on the front rushed up to the couple and wrapped him up in a hug. He laughed as he returned the embrace and answered her warm welcome, "Hey Cat."

She pulled away and shouted back, "Hey. He noticed that she had a paper horn in her hand and blew into it and causing Freddie and Jade to stick their fingers into their respective ears. "Happy New Year!"

Freddie laughed out softly and Jade replied dryly together, "Happy New Year."

Sinjin, Ava and Dusty approached the quartet as a few other Hollywood Arts students were already milling about waiting for others to arrive and really get the party going which a number of teenagers were already starting to streaming into the star's home.

Dusty offered a nod and a wave, "Hey."

Freddie gave a nod in return then looked to Ava. "Hey, missed seeing you over the break."

Ava shrugged a shoulder and answered with a smile, "Went up to Seattle to see my sister for Christmas, but I'm glad I made it back in time. I did not want to spend New Years up there."

The brown eyed teenager smirked as he asked, "But you are Ava right? Not Eva?"

The shorter teenager tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes on the Seattle native. A moment later, she gave him a playful punch to his arm.

He laughed in response and commented, "I know Sinjin's glad to see you."

She laughed out, "He better be."

Sinjin raised a concerned eyebrow as he asked, "You are Ava right?"

His brunette girlfriend's mouth dropped open as she looked to the tall teenager incredulously.

The rest unintentionally laughed for a moment at Sinjin's predicament.

Dusty covered his mouth with the back of his hand and mumbled, "Doghouse."

The curly haired teenager slightly frowned at the shorter teenager and the Southern teen threw up his signaling he really didn't want to pick at him any further than that comment.

Freddie glanced around and noticed a particular absence, "Where's Trina?"

Tori quickly answered, "She searching the house for Kenan."

Freddie's brow furled as he pursed his lips. He asked curiously, "I thought he was in New York for New Years?"

Tori wore a soft grin as she answered, "That's what André told me, but Trina wouldn't believe me."

Jade shook her head and rolled her eyes at what she considered a sad and pathetic attempt to get noticed by a star.

Freddie laughed out as he commented, "I'll find her in a little bit, but I want to show you something."

The teenagers shared a quick glance among themselves then decided to follow Freddie as he made his way to the door.

Once they were outside, he explained and motioned towards the Charger, "I thought Jade was going to drive us here, but she surprised me with this."

Jade smiled proudly with her arms crossed while the rest were left in stunned silence looking over the vehicle they had come to know as battered, but not broken vehicle… just like her owner.

The Southern teenager blinked as he looked over the car. He took a few steps to get a better look then whispered, "Oh my God, she's a beauty." Instinctually he wanted to run his fingertips over the surface, but didn't want to put any fingerprints on the waxed vehicle.

Freddie laughed as he crossed his arms over his chest, "Yep."

Dusty leaned down to look at the interior then laughed as he looked over his shoulder past the tech producer to meet Jade's eyes, "Is this your way of proposing to him? If it is then I'd say yes."

Freddie let out a chuckle and covered his mouth with a hand while the pale actress broke eye contact to try to shield herself from some embarrassment.

Sinjin patted the shorter teenager's shoulder and added, "It is a sweet ride… think I can borrow it sometime? I'd love to take Ava out in this."

The tech producer tilted his head to the side and gave the taller teenager a crooked smile.

Dusty laughed as he offered Freddie as he spared a glance towards Ava, "That's what you get for having such a nice car… and have friends that fail to make a joke _a joke_ with their girlfriend."

* * *

><p>About fifteen minutes later, teenagers from Hollywood Arts and Northridge started filling the place as they had crashed last time. The Hollywood Arts group along with their extended aquatints (Sinjin, Ava and Dusty) were gathered around the bar overseeing the quickly partying crowd as the DJ started his first song.<p>

Dusty began with a cheerful tone, "Party is finally getting started… I know what I'm going to do."

Sinjin asked with a curious tone, "What's that?"

"I'm going to do the same thing I did at the Halloween dance: dance with as many pretty girls as I can before the night is out… but avoid the Northridge ones." Dusty softly chuckled as he looked to Sinjin, "I'm going to steal a dance with your girlfriend." He raised an eyebrow at the shorter brunette to ask her permission.

Ava let out a soft giggle and offered her hand to him. He gladly grabbed the brunette's hand and started to lead her further into the congregating area while the brunette laughed out in surprise.

Dusty shouted back playful, "I'll bring her back and get you out of the doghouse!"

Ava waved back with a smile and shouted, "Have a dance with Cat!" Sinjin glance to Cat and nervously asked the redhead, "Care to dance?"

She gave him a soft smile as she bit her bottom lip and grabbed him by the hand to drag him to the living room while blowing her horn in her other hand.

The tech producer laughed as the rest started entering the fray to join the party with Jade dragging him along by the wrist a few paces then turned to step close enough to embrace. He smiled to her and accepted the unspoken invitation by resting his hands on her hips and she rested her hands on his shoulders. The DJ was playing an upbeat song, but the couple danced together at a slow tempo as the rest and more like the other teenagers just hanging and talking with one another.

The couple danced this way for about twenty minutes until DJ Mustang announced he was going to play a slow dance song for all the couples. The unlikely pair smiled to one another and pulled each other a little closer at the same time in anticipation. He started the next song and the lyrics instantly filled the room: _"I can be fragile, I can break in two, but I know I will be swept up by you…You were meant for me…"_

Freddie stopped in his tracks and gave Jade a fearful expression with wide eyes and a thin line of a mouth.

"What?" Jade asked with immediate concern at seeing the look in his eyes.

Freddie cleared his throat then was able to garble out, "This was a… this was kind of… I associated that song with me and Carly. We had our first dance together with that song, so… kind of meaningful and I can't…"

Jade nodded her understanding since they shared two songs together: 'One and Only' (which she recorded specifically for them) and André's 'Okay'.

He put on a crooked smile as he explained, "I'm going to sit this one out if you don't mind and get something to drink."

She nodded her head and answered, "I understand. That's fine. I'm going to see if André wants a dance."

He broke with a somewhat relieved smile as he offered, "I think he'll like that if you can get him away from Tori."

She smirked at him then pulled away from him to mingle with the crowd.

* * *

><p>Dusty was resting against the bar on the other side of the wall separating the living room from the foyer sipping on a drink. He snorted out a laugh as Freddie quickly approached the table and poured himself a drink. "Wow, you must be thirsty making that much of a B-line to the drinks."<p>

The brown eyed teenager looked up to his fellow student and shrugged his shoulders. "I had to take a break from the dancing."

The webmaster laughed, "Looked more like fleeing in terror Benson."

Freddie gave a weary smile as he answered, "The song that's playing… it was mine and Carly's song… and the lyrics have a very deep meaning for me."

He tilted his head to the side for a moment to listen to some of the lyrics then respectfully asked, "And you thought you were meant to be?"

Freddie smirked as he replied with a tired tone, "Since I was eleven. She's my first love. I thought one day she would stop kissing all those frogs and realized I was right there and finally get together… _meant to be_ and all that. I was quite wrong."

Dusty gave a sympathetic smile as he shook his head. He looked to the tech producer with a smirk and commented, "I learned something very important from one of my uncles one time: sometimes you have to tear up the script and burn the pages then write your own story." He gently nudged Freddie with his right elbow and pointed towards Jade talking to some other girls with his cup. "Write your own ending Benson. Write your own… and make sure she's in it."

The tech producer looked to his smiling girlfriend having a quick dance with André as Tori stood off to the side of the pair with a smile on her face then back at the webmaster as he thought on the advice. Freddie reached up and patted him on the right shoulder. "You're a good friend Dusty."

Dusty's face went a few shades whiter for a moment and cleared his throat. He took a moment, but finally gave a slight nod of his head to the teenager. Dusty's voice sounded like he had a frog caught in his throat to Freddie's ears as the webmaster answered with a crooked smile, "Yeah, well… honor would have accepted no less."

Freddie held back a laugh as he knew that was the best he was going to get from the teenager, but it was enough.

The song filling the room stopped playing and another one picked up. Freddie smiled at the change and told Dusty, "I'm going to see if I can get a dance with Tori."

The fellow L.A. immigrant shouted out to him, "Just watch out for the Northridge girls!"

Several girls around him looked to him with a curious expression. He slightly frowned as he stared back and asked with a sharp tone, "What?"

* * *

><p>As Freddie approached the trio, Jade finished her dance with André and started her way to the bar. She gave Freddie a quick kiss on the cheek as she passed him and whisper, "I have to something to drink."<p>

He replied quickly, "Your mom told me to watch our drinks."

She turned and walked backwards a few steps to answer, "I will."

He shook his head then looked to the pair of friends. The brown eyed teenager offered his hand to Tori, "You're looking kind of lonely Tori; care for a dance?"

She passed André a quick look and he just smiled in return. The songsmith spoke, "I'm going to go mingle and make sure that Panda hasn't shown up." He started on his way, but was sidetracked into talking with some other girls who Freddie wasn't sure were Northridge or Hollywood Arts girls (Hollywood Arts is a big school after all).

Tori finally answered as she slipped her hand into the former Seattleite's hand, "I'd love to."

* * *

><p>Jade reached the bar and grabbed an inverted stacked plastic cup to pour herself some punch.<p>

The webmaster casually asked, "Enjoying the party?"

She gave him a soft smirk as she answered, "Yeah, you?"

He leaned over closer for her to hear him over the sound of the party, "As long as I can dodge the Northridge girls."

The pale brunette shook her head and let out a soft laugh then looked to meet his eyes. "You're the only one I guess… run into some of your old classmates?"

He shrugged a shoulder as he answered, "A few, but they're too busy chasing skirts to settle old scores if they have any." He glanced up and down the dark brunette then commented, "You should watch out for them too or they'll try to slip a hand under your skirt."

She frowned for a moment as only one boy was allowed to do that and even he would be hesitant to do it in private. She laughed out darkly, "They'll lose the hand."

The webmaster let out a laugh and raised his plastic cup in support. "Only way to deal with the horny little…" He cleared his throat as he realized that maybe he should edit what he was going to say, "…boys."

The green and blue streaked haired teenager laughed along with him as they sipped on their respective drinks.

* * *

><p>Freddie held the fingers of Tori's left hand gently between his thumb and pointer finger as the pair swayed to the music. He softly laughed, "It's interesting being back here."<p>

The brunette gave a slight nod of her head as she forced out an awkward reply, "Yeah…"

He didn't initially catch her tone of voice as he continued with the same lively voice, "I met Jade here."

She let out a soft laugh, "You met us all here, remember?"

"Yeah, I just…" He trailed off as he looked into the brunette's eyes and realized that she wasn't feeling well along with the reasons why. He blew out a soft breath and finished, "I just wish it had been under better circumstances."

She answered with a regretful tone, "Me too."

"Steven was a fool in more ways than one… I don't know which one of you he started dating first, but if you were first, he was a fool giving you up."

She bowed her head slightly as a bit of blush formed on her cheeks. She whispered out, "You're very sweet Freddie."

He kept silent on that part, but spoke on another, "I'm looking at it as a chance to build some new memories."

"Well you would, wouldn't you?"

He softly chuckled, "Yes, but… I'm not the only one that has the chance?"

Tori took a breath as she instantly realized what he was speaking about.

The brown eyed teenager grinned as he clarified, "I'm not saying more than being friends, but I think spending it with André and the rest of us can heal some wounds that you didn't realize were still there. I know mine were healed a great deal that way."

She broke into a smile and gave him a nod then started picking up the pace of her dancing with the brown eye teenager happily joining her.

* * *

><p>Jade and Dusty looked over the partying teenagers with the dark brunette passing a glance at her boyfriend and Tori. Dusty chuckled as he glanced towards the dark brunette and commented dryly, "I don't think I'm going to be invited into another one of your poker games."<p>

She pulled away her focus on the pair then shrugged a shoulder as she answered, "I don't know, you made for an interesting game… you threw some of them off to make me very rich in candy."

The Southern teenager rolled his eyes and snorted out with a breath before sipping on his cup, "Now you're just trying to be polite; I was a buzz kill and you know it. I made everyone feel awkward."

She let out a soft laugh and a shrug of her shoulder, "Okay, there was an obvious rising of the tension at the table. How you reacted to Robbie, which for you I can understand with Cat and I can't fault you for that, but with Beck… I'm kind of at a loss."

Dusty lowered the plastic cup away from his lips and twisted his torso to look at the dark brunette. He gave her an apologetic expression as he answered, "I'm sorry if I inadvertently embarrassed you. That was not my intention, but I didn't like him getting that air of superiority with me. I have enough people look down on me. I'm going to tell you the same thing I told Benson a while ago: I don't respect Oliver as a man, so I don't have to give him the respect of one. It can obviously lead to some problems in having normal conversations and I didn't want him thinking that Benson put me up to anything to score some cheap shots on him."

Jade blinked with confusion evident on her face and asked with a perplexed tone, "You said it yourself, you don't know him well enough to judge him,"

The Southern teenager shook his head and clarified, "I'm not judging him about whether I like him or not, just from what I've seen of him, I don't respect him. I'm a throwback, remember?"

"I'm sorry, but I don't understand."

"Your old Slap videos with him, specifically your couple's advice?"

She thought back to the few videos that she had made with her ex, but she wasn't sure where he was going. "What about them?"

He blew out a soft breath through his nose and put on an apprehensive expression. He answered her with a serious tone, "That's not how you treat a lady. When you told him to stop and let you go when he was giving you a nuggie, he should have stop, but he didn't as he laughed and continued. And when he didn't like what you said in the other one and threatened not to talk to you for the rest of the day if you didn't behave… If you were my sister…" He shook his head then finished coldly, "I would have taught him some manners on how to treat a lady and that when she says no, that means to stop… teaching him would have probably involved the hard way. If he can't respect you as a lady and his girlfriend, I don't see why I should respect him as man."

Jade took in a sharp breath as she met his dark brown eyes and realized how serious he was about that statement. She wondered briefly if that was the look she gave people when she set her sights on them. She nodded briefly and commented softly, "Is it always that black and white for you?"

After he finished taking a sip from his drink looked out into the field of partying teenagers and answered, "I am not blind to emotional entanglements between people and couples and the complications that entails about doing the right thing; I just don't think they should be used as excuses for inexcusable behavior. You and the others may see me as rigid; I see myself as well-grounded and I make no apologies for it. Sometimes all you have is right and wrong…" He finished with a somber tone, "And it keeps you from doing stupid and more importantly selfish stuff over the wellbeing and happiness of others."

Jade listened to what he had said, but also looked out to follow his eyes to see that he was looking at something particular: Cat and Robbie happily dancing together. The curly haired teenager held on to the shorter girl's left hand and Cat was laughing nearly uncontrollably enjoying herself as the danced wildly to the upbeat song. Jade looked back to the quickly looking stoic teenager sipping on his drink. She lifted her right hand and softly rested it on the side of his upper left arm.

He turned his head to give her a questioning look with a raised eyebrow.

She gave him a comforting smile. "Falling on your sword?" she asked remembering when she had spoken that phrase to Freddie months ago that seemed applicable to Dusty from her vantage point.

He turned to his right to sit his drink down then back around to place his hand over hers resting on his arm. He answered with a confident smile, "Holding it up in the defense of my ideals."

The lovely girl blew out a soft breath through her nose and smiled towards the webmaster with an acknowledging nod.

His smile grew bigger and closed his eyes as he gave her a respective nod.

As he opened his eyes, Jade offered with a playful smile, "Would you care to dance with this lady?"

He let out a soft laugh as he answered, "How could I refuse?" He wrapped his hand still resting on Jade's hand then led her back into the crowd of teenagers.

* * *

><p>The time was approaching nine o'clock as Freddie was laughing almost hysterically as he tried not to make a fool of himself as he danced with Jade. She was smirking at him rather seductively along with the swing of her hips in what had become his favorite black skirt that she had worn with just about everything in her collection with two particular times standing out in his mind: the dark grey button shirt she wore during the play where Trina had her accident and her black ensemble on their date to the Friday night concert where André sung 365 Ways.<p>

The party was just as big if not bigger than the one he crashed with Carly, Sam, Spencer and Gibby in the hopes of finding Steven and it was certainly already a blast even this early in the night.

Tori and André had been dancing with one another since Freddie's conversation with younger Vega sister and Robbie was failing to keep the Northridge guys away from Cat dancing up a storm even if the ventriloquist couldn't tell she was keeping her eyes on him.

Thankfully, while Beck was entertaining several ladies that wanted his attention including Trina apparently wanting to use the party to make another run at him and Dusty was sharing another dance with Ava, the pair were close enough to make sure the guys from their rival high school were behaving themselves around the playful red velvet haired teenager (or protecting them from her Freddie wondered several times).

He had seen Sinjin and Ava around earlier with her mostly keeping the Northridge girls from trying to take advantage of the curly haired teenager, but wondered what trouble he was getting into if Ava was dancing with Dusty. He hoped none of the Northridge girls were taking advantage of him as he heard about the Karaoke Dookie incident or worst… that he was trying the surf board game again.

The only thing different with this party was that they still hadn't seen that giant panda bear which he taken as a good sign.

The former Seattleite turned his attention back to the alluring dark brunette teenager in front of him. She took a step forward and stopped their dancing as she pulled him into an embrace with her arms around the back of his neck. She grinned wickedly and looked into his eyes as he wrapped his arms around her waist and small of her back. He chuckled back softly then stole a quick kiss from her lips.

"I'm looking forward to midnight. I get my first New Year's kiss," he finished with a soft laugh.

She rested her forehead against his forehead. She asked with a playful tone, "I will be your first New Year's kiss? Well I don't intend to disappoint you…"

"Never," he answered then gave her another quick kiss, but she leaned forward to keep him from initially breaking the kiss.

However, the ringing of his phone from his jacket pocket interrupted their intimacy. He sighed loudly as he looked to his girlfriend with a regretful expression as he reached in his jacket pocket to answer the call. Freddie blinked as he saw the caller ID as Spencer then pulled away of his girlfriend with a curious expression on his face. "It's Spencer," he explained to Jade. "I wonder what's going on. Why would he be calling?" He casually remarked as he brought the phone to his ear as he accepted the call as he maintained his curious expression.

Freddie's jaw slacked open for a second and his eyes widened as he responded to the person on the other end of the line, "Nora?"

Jade's attention was immediately captured as she was surprised to hear the name leave his lips.

The brown eyed teenager asked coldly, "What do you want? How did you get Spencer's phone?"

Jade watched with growing apprehension and dread as he was quiet for almost a minute as he listened to the raving lunatic of a teenager. He finally asked in return, "How do you know I just can't get a hold of their father and he'll send the FBI or some other alphabet soup agency after you?"

Jade watched as her boyfriend gritted his teeth as apparently she had a response to him. He looked up to meet her bluish/green eyes that were quickly filling with anger, but she saw something else… regret? Fear?

He broke eye contact with her as he answered with a voice filled with disgust, "_Damn you_… I'll be there. I'm in L.A., so you have to give me a few hours to get a flight up there." He pressed the end call button and stuffed his phone in his jacket pocket.

"Freddie?" Jade questioned with the evident shock on her face.

He looked towards her with his jaw slacking and let out a soft breath through is mouth as he saw the realization reflected in her eyes at what he was about to do. He looked back at her with defeated eyes and slightly shook his head. His voice sounded so hollow and empty to her ears that it sent a chill down her spine, "I have to go."

Beck may have been chatting with a few girls, but he noticed that the pair stopped dancing then Freddie placing his phone to his ear. He casually slid past them to get a better look at what was going on while wearing a curious expression.

Jade's mouth dropped open as her brain refused to initially process what he said to her. She grabbed on to his right wrist to give her a moment to understand. He looked down at where they were joined then stared at her eyes for a few moments and whispered, "I'm sorry… I have to go." He carefully pried her fingers from around his wrist with his left hand then turned and headed for the front door before the dark brunette could utter a word.

Tori stopped her dancing with André as Freddie quickly walked past her on his way to the door. She blinked at seeing him leaving in such a hurry then looked to see Jade wearing a completely shocked expression then her shoulders slump and dropped her head to look down at the floor. The pale actress crossed her arms under her chest and closed her eyes as clenched her jaw tight as she used every bit of her willpower not to shed one tear.

The lighter brunette snapped her head to see Freddie exiting the door and called out, "Freddie? Freddie!" The teenager ignored her as he made it to the front door and outside.

Jade felt a soft hand on her shoulder, but jerked away as if the touch had scalded her. Cat yelped in surprise from the motion and was frightened for a moment as her pale friend pulled away from her hand and quickly walked away from the rest further into the house.

Tori's attention was caught by Cat's sound and she looked back to see Jade trying to disappear into the crowd and head further into the house. She started after the darker brunette and called out, "Jade? Jade?"

Dershlit Residence  
>Olympia, WA<br>~11:50 P.M., December 31, 2011

Nora stared giddily at a flatscreen television hanging on the far wall to see the time tick away as it approached midnight and into the New Year. It had been several hours since her call to Freddie and the anticipation of his arrival was fraying on her nerves, but she covered that apprehension with even more false happiness.

The Seattle teenagers traded looks with one another as Sam stood beside the couch eating more cake. Carly was feeling dread in her stomach and not just from being held hostage again by Nora, but that Freddie might actually show up. She had argued with Nora that it was pointless in trying to get him to come and all it would do would get the cops to show up on her doorstep, but in her crazy mind she refused to listen.

The unstable teenager asked more to herself than to the others, "I hope he gets here in time for my midnight kiss." As if on cue, Spencer's phone rang in her hand and Nora quickly brought the phone to her ear with a mad grin plastered on her face. "Hello," she asked trying to suppress the giddiness in her voice.

"_It's me Nora,"_ Freddie's voice sounded on the other end of the line.

She giggled madly as she shouted and jumped up and down, "Freddie!"

Carly, Sam and Gibby shared confused and worried expressions.

"_I'm right outside. You just have to open the front door."_

Nora dashed over to the front door to look out the peephole. She saw Freddie standing on the other side of the door holding his PearPhone in his left hand and waving with his right hand. He was soaked and his hair matted to his head as his jacket had only offered him limited protection. He was wearing his book bag on his back with the cross strap being the only visible sign knowing he was wearing it. She was apparently too excited to notice how forced the smile was on his face.

She pulled out a set of keys from her pocket and started unlocking the deadbolt and the lock above the handle. She stuffed the keys back in her pocket and grabbed the handle to pull open the door.

The others remained in place with the watchful eye of Nora's mother to prevent them from taking advantage of the situation.

The brunette pulled the door open enough to reveal half of her grinning face to Freddie. He was smiling in return, but it didn't reach his eyes. She didn't have time to contemplate the meaning of that occurrence even if she was so incline since in that split second Freddie lifted his right leg and slammed the bottom of his foot against the door. The door expectedly slammed Nora in her face, instantly breaking her nose and sending her tumbling backwards onto the floor where she smacked the back of her head on the wooden floor.

The teenagers and Nora's mother sucked in sharp breaths and looked on in complete shock at what they had just seen. They were frozen in place from their shock as Freddie stuffed his phone back in his pocket as he casually walked inside then placed his right foot hard on Nora's neck, pinning her in place and cutting off most of her air supply. She struggled and clawed at his foot to maintain what little air was reaching her lungs and trying not to choke on her own blood from her broken nose running back down her nasal passage and down her throat.

Mrs. Dershlit grabbed Carly by both arms and pulled her in front of her as if to use the teenager as a shield. "Let her go!"

Freddie slowly looked up to meet Mrs. Dershlit's eyes and whispered coldly, "No. You're going to let Carly go and we are all leaving or—" Freddie put a little more pressure on Nora's neck which caused the teenager to start kicking her feet wildly.

"Stop! Or I'll—" Mrs. Dershlit reached over and grabbed a fork off the food filled table and held it to Carly's throat.

Carly may have had a metal fork aimed at her throat by a woman nearly as insane as her daughter, but she really wasn't afraid as she stared into Freddie's eyes. The brunette saw the anger, the hatred, the outright coldness in her former friend's eyes and a little more of her broke at seeing him reach such a state.

Gibby spoke up quite fearfully from sitting in the recliner towards the door, "Freddie, you can't bluff her. She's just as crazy as Nora and I think she'll do it."

"Who said I was bluffing?" Freddie growled out softly as he put just a little more pressure on Nora's neck which at this point was causing the teenager to start turning blue and if possible start kicking even wilder. He looked at the psychotic's mother in the eyes and whispered coldly, "I _will_ make you bury your daughter." He looked straight into _Carly's_ eyes as he finished, "I just gave up _everything_ tonight and I don't see why you shouldn't suffer with me."

Carly swallowed seeing his dead eyes and the bottom falling out of her stomach with the sudden urge to throw up.

Freddie turned his attention back to the equally crazy mother for them to stare at one another seeing which one would back down first: Mrs. Dershlit with the hint of the same madness of her daughter versus Freddie's sheer apathy for anything at the moment as the excess water from the storm dripped off of his cheeks and chin.

However, Mrs. Dershlit had miscalculated something when she grabbed Carly: Sam was still standing to her friend's side and now the mother's side as well.

"Sam," Freddie whispered with a chilled voice, but not taking his eyes off of Mrs. Dershlit's eyes.

"Yeah?" she asked somewhat hesitantly as even she was fearful of how the standoff could end.

"Vulcan Nerve Pinch her."

Sam only took a second to process what he was asking, but it wasn't enough for Mrs. Dershlit to realize what was about to happen as the older woman apparently didn't get the reference. The blonde reached out with her left hand and pinched Nora's mother between her neck and shoulder. The woman sharply cocked her head to the side then collapsed to the floor just like her daughter a year and a half ago.

Carly let out a shocked and relieved breath as she felt the woman fall away from her.

Freddie looked to Gibby and motioned with his head, "Get Spencer and let's get out of here."

Gibby shook his head and answered, "I can't; the door's locked."

Freddie lashed out with a hate filled shout, "Then have Sam to use her _damn super-strength_ and kick the janking door down!"

The taller teenager actually shivered from the anger in the former Tech-Producer's voice. He fearfully looked to Sam and asked, "Ah… right, Sam?"

Sam nodded nervously as seeing this side of Freddie caused her to pause. He glanced to the blonde to show he didn't have any patience for her delays and just might turn on her in a moment. Those eyes were the same eyes that he gave her after she threw him over her shoulder in his hotel room months ago. It dawned on her that maybe she got the better end of the deal with fighting… _getting your ass kicked_, her mind corrected, by Jade then to have faced Freddie that night. They may have carried one of them out in a body bag.

She brushed that thought away and quickly headed for the door to the basement as the brown eye teenager turned his attention to Mister Dershlit standing near the kitchen door. "You stay right there," he instructed with a harsh tone and the gentleman complied with a look of terror in his eyes. Freddie let his foot off of Nora and grabbed her by the collar area to hoist her up on her feet. She grasped and coughed for breath as she spat up blood onto her shirt while trying to focus on his cold eyes burrowing into her.

He gave her a moment to gather enough of her wits to really meet his eyes then whispered with a chill that reached her very soul, "I don't care how crazy you are. I don't care what madness or depression you are suffering, if you ever go after them again or decide to come after me or anyone I love… I will send you straight to Hell… and that's assuming that Colonel Shay just doesn't put a bullet in your crazy janking head for what you've done to his children."

Nora swallowed and nodded her head as it looked like even the insane can have moments of clarity.

Freddie snorted out in disgust then threw her back onto the floor and smacking the side of her head on the hardwood floor as Spencer and Gibby were exiting the basement entrance.

"They had me spinning!" the artist shouted as Gibby helped him keep his balance.

Gibby reassured the lanky artist, "It's okay, no more spinning."

The Seattle group walked around Freddie as he kept a cold stare on Nora's father as if daring the man to try anything. Once they had exited through the front door, Freddie slowly walked backwards to exit while shifting his eyes between the father and daughter. He passed one last look to Nora with empty eyes as he reached the threshold of the door and reminded her, "Remember my warning. _Remember my warning_."

He didn't wait for any kind of verbal response as he turned and exited the home.

The downpour had intensified and lightening flashed across the sky as the wind started to howl when Freddie stepped out of the house.

They were all entering Spencer's SUV, but Freddie waited a moment in the driveway and ran a hand through his hair as the rain began to drench him once again and matted his hair to his forehead.

Carly stopped and walked back to her former friend. She wore a look of regret and apprehension on her face as reached to stand in front of him. She didn't apparently care that she was becoming soaked other than wrapping her arms around herself to try to keep a little of her body heat as her fearful eyes met his dead eyes.

He looked up at Carly and growled out, "I _begged you_. I _pleaded with you_ to let this go, but what do you do? You show up and she plays _the same damn trick on you again_." He let out a breath then continued, "You were counting on me coming weren't you? Is this what you cooked up with my mother and lied to me the entire time? Was this the opportunity you two were waiting for? _'I know what we can do to get him to come crawling back to us. He can't refuse helping us get away from Nora.'_"

Carly took a sharp breath as now he was directing those cold eyes at him. It wasn't just the coldness, but the deadness in his eyes. "Freddie it isn't like that, they were going to keep spinning Spencer if we—"

"Bullshit!" he shouted and she saw just a little bit of madness showing through his eyes.

Carly leaned back actually more frightened of him than she had been of Nora.

"Sam could have just beaten the shit out of her like you use to let her do to _ME_ then just have gotten Spencer and left." He pointed back to the house. "And don't you dare tell me that damn door prevented it. Even if she couldn't have kicked it down, she could have locked picked it in seconds or you could have just called the cops after Sam had left Nora and her mother a bloody mess on the floor."

The drenched brunette muttered out desperately, "She had a remote control—"

There was an almost growling like quality to his voice as he snapped back, "Then all the more reason to let Sam go at her and just take the remote to whatever she was going to use it for. You really think I'm that stupid?"

The brunette started breathing quickly and desperately answered, "She had a special button on the remote that would spin Spencer until his brains went mush if we tried to take it."

"Oh don't give me that shit. She couldn't have been holding the remote the entire time and even if she did, Sam could have still gotten through the door and simply _unplugged the damn thing_."

Carly lowered her head in shame.

Freddie shook his head as he tried to blink the falling rain out of his eyes. He grabbed her roughly by the chin and forced her to meet his eyes as he whispered softly, but his words were the loudest thing she had ever heard even over the lightening, wind and rain, "Go straight to Hell Carly Shay and take your damn demonic bitch with you."

He jerked his hand away from her chin and walked past her, leaving the drenched brunette frozen in place as she stared at the spot where a moment ago he stood.

He started walking down the driveway with no particular destination in mind, but just focused on the idea of walking.

"You don't have any place else to go!" Sam shouted and bringing the Los Angeles immigrant to a stop at the end of the driveway.

Freddie slowly turned his head to see the blonde standing beside the SUV looking at him with a strange expression (Sympathy?) as she started to become soaked. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought that it was regret. "You don't have any place else to go, but with us home. You chose Carly over Jade… you think they will take you back? You think _she'll_ take you back? You can come home with us… you don't have any other choice."

Lightening flashed and the thunder cracked drowning out all noise and illuminating the entire area for a moment as Freddie stared harshly at the blonde through the increasingly heavy rain. One particular noise it drowned out was Freddie's PearPhone beeping inside his pocket and signaling that it was midnight, January first, twenty-twelve.

He held his stare as the light and shadows played across his hard face then turned to look aback at Sam. He shouted loud enough for even Heaven to hear, "I may be damned, but at least I'm damned for who I am."

The blonde blinked it utter confusion at his statement, but he did give her time to respond as he turned away from them and started walking down the sidewalk.

Freddie didn't know where he was walking, but kept his eyes forward as he just walked through the neighborhood and the night as the rain continued to pour down on him and lightening flashing over his head. He looked up at the raging sky as the tendrils of the lightening brightened the stormy sky and screamed at the sky with all his anger, hatred, pain, regret and what was left of his tattered heart.

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>12:01 A.M., January 1, 2012

Jade looked out into the dark and softly raining Los Angeles' night as she sat cross-legged on the swing on her front porch. She had changed hours ago into Freddie's blue and white flannel patterned shirt (her favorite) and a pair of her grey drawstring pants with a light blanket wrapped around her shoulders she had pulled tight around her and in front of her chest to keep the chilly night off of her. The dark brunette's cheeks were marred with dry tears even after wiping others away several times over the last few hours along with all her makeup and eyeliner, leaving her face free of any beauty product including her nose stud and eyebrow ring.

People were cheering and singing as the clocks struck midnight in the houses across the street and surrounding houses while she sat in silence and letting her emotions and heartache churn in her head and her heart at the chance she lost tonight.

Her own voice in her head started singing, _**I like your smile, but even introductions need to last awhile…**_

_Jade took a deep breath and spoke in a cold tone, "No, you can't sit beside me."_

"_Are you sure?" a familiar male voice asked in a lighthearted tone._

_She turned her head and looked up to see a brown eye smiling teenager. Her frown vanished and was replaced with one of surprise as she sat up straight in her chair. She blinked and mouthed for a moment before she was able to get out her question, "Freddie?"_

"_Hey Jade," Freddie Benson replied with a warm smile._

_Freddie pulled out a sleek silver digital camera and held it up for her to see. "How about a new picture? Something to keep as a memento of our first day in the workshop?"_

_She shook her head and gave him a grin, but it didn't hold any kind of sarcasm or mischievous intent. "Okay, I guess I can spare you a new picture, but don't expect me to smile."_

_Freddie laughed and shook his head. "Whatever you want to do Jade, whatever you want to do."_

_They sat up in their seats and he lifted his arm to wrap around her shoulders and held up his camera. Freddie grinned as she let the smallest of smiles form on her face. The next moment he snapped the photo._

_**So there you are, mistakenly mistaken for a deeper scar, a hole in your heart and the same for me. **_

_Freddie got up and walked the brief distance between them and took a seat beside her. He gave her a brief smile and bumped his shoulder with her shoulder. "Maybe so, but I'm glad I'm in the closet with you."_

_She closed her eyes and snorted out a hitched breath. "Charmer."_

_He gave her a smile in return the reached up and grabbed a wrapped roll of toilet paper. He tore open the wrapping and a few sheets then turned back to the pale teenager. He lifted up some balled sheets in his right hand and cupped her chin in his left hand. He started to wipe the tears and makeup off her cheeks as gently as possible as it was the cheap stuff and not particularly soft tissue. _

_Once her cheeks were cleaned off and let go of her chin, he looked to her and gave her a smile. "And you have the beauty of an angel… I guess we all have our problems."_

_**Is everything you touch keeping you down or setting you free?**_

_He leaned forward so that his focused was on her eyes and gave her a warm smile. She stared back unsure of why he approached her and was looking at her in that manner, but his smile swept away any apprehension she may have felt. _

_She asked softly trying her best for her voice not to crack, "What?" _

_The brown eye boy shook his head and let his fear and doubts show on his face as he answered, "I don't have the words Jade. I don't have the words to give you."_

_The bluish/green eye girl took a sharp intake of breath and her eyes widened._

_He hesitantly lifted his right hand and brushed the side of her cheek with his thumb for a moment as he tenderly cupped her cheek. He leaned a little closer until his lips gently brushed her lips to tease them for an instant before applying pressure and kissing her._

_She closed her eyes and returned the gentle kiss as he showed no sign of pulling back nor did she want him to pull away._

_Her hands slid up his chest and around his neck to cup his cheeks for a moment as she pulled him forward to slowly deepen the kiss. They finally pulled away from one another to catch their respective breaths. Bluish/Green eyes met brown eyes as they stared at one another for a few seconds both trying to convey to the other's their feelings without speaking a word._

_Apparently the nonverbal facial expressions were not enough for Jade to say what she needed to say, so she stood up and wrapped her arms around the back of his neck to pull him into another deep kiss._

_**There is no upper hand, I'm giving you mine. It doesn't have to end up wasting your time, there's things that I could say, but hear it my way, I want to let you know that it's all okay…  
><strong>_

_Their first night together was unexpected for both of them. Neither teenager really knew what they were doing past a heavy make out session other than driven by instinct built in the core of a human being and the need to show how much the other had came to meant to her and him._

_She knew her eyes had fear in them as they were about to tread into the unknown, but she saw those same feelings reflected in his eyes._

_She allowed herself to be vulnerable and he had done the same._

_He had attempted to dispel her lingering fears as he would hold her and caress her as if she was the most precious thing in the world as he was afraid he'd hurt her._

_She let her surprise shine through her eyes about how loving and tender he could be in return despite his strength and how more importantly, she was grateful._

_She couldn't describe the wonderful sensations he had brought to her as he tried to dispel the momentary pain she felt just after they started._

_**Sometimes I don't know if I'm right or wrong and in the end it seems like everything is worse when you're gone…**_

_He broke eye contact with her as he answered with a voice filled with disgust, "I'll be there. I'm in L.A., so you have to give me a few hours to get a flight up there." He pressed the end call button and stuffed his phone in his jacket pocket._

"_Freddie?" Jade questioned with the evident shock on her face._

_He looked towards her with his jaw slacking and let out a soft breath through is mouth as he saw the realization reflected in her eyes at what he was about to do. He looked back at her with defeated eyes and slightly shook his head. His voice sounded so hollow and empty to her ears that it sent a chill down her spine, "I have to go."_

_Jade's mouth dropped open as her brain refused to initially process what he said to her. He stared at her eyes for a few moments and whispered, "I'm sorry…" He turned and headed for the front door before the dark brunette could utter a word._

**_Want to let you know that it's all okay, want to let you know, that it's _all_ okay…_**

Jadelyn 'Jade' West's breath hitched then she let the tears start flowing again as the sky and maybe the angels themselves cried with her.

To be continued…

…in _We Love Each Other_.

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><p>Author's note: Yep, that's it for this story kinda, I'll explain in a second. Jade Likes Nice Guys is done and this has now turned into a trilogy with the third story going to be 'We Love Each Other' that will pick up after this and continued simultaneously with Victorious' ongoing season. I will be taking a little break however with this series to work on some of my other stories that I haven't had the time to continue. I should be posting the first chapter of 'We Love Each Other' on Friday, July 20. However, I won't be hitting the complete button yet for this story because in about two weeks I will be posting kind of a comedic bridge way chapter to link the stories as you know there was a Victorious episode between 'A Christmas Tori' and 'The Breakfast Bunch'.<p>

I'll see you next chapter with a lot of thanks to a lot of people that I need to give shout outs.


	32. Chapter 32

Author's Note: Hello everyone. I hope everyone has been doing well since my little break with this story. First off, change in plans. After thought and consideration (and input from you my dear readers) with how I have the continuing story planned for Jade and Freddie, I think that resolving the cliffhanger within this story is best for the overall story. So, instead of the comedic chapter, this is the first chapter for the resolution of the cliffhanger and 'We Love Each Other' will most likely be pushed back a few weeks. I appreciate all the reviews and happy reading.

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><p>Chapter 32<p>

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>1:22 A.M., January 1, 2012

Ruby Lynn West wrapped her arms around herself in a blue short sleeve pajama t-shirt and plaid pajama pants as she leaned against and rested her head on the door frame to the room that she had given Freddie Benson to live in since early August. She looked sadly at her daughter asleep in his bed and resting her head on one of his Galaxy Wars pillowcases covered pillows. She lifted her right hand to cover her mouth as she saw her daughter's breath hitch again as the pale teenager had cried herself to sleep and stained the pillow with her tears.

She had been just as powerless to help her daughter when the dark haired teenager broke up with Beck other than hold her and tried to reassure her that everything would be okay. She had wanted to ring that pretty boy's neck for breaking her little girl's heart instead of trying to work out their problems. She was her mother so she didn't care how much blame could be laid at Jade's feet… she wished that Roy had been the father he should have been and taught the boy a lesson… or Steven would have if he had been here, but of course he had been overseas or wherever they had sent him, maybe to another planet for all she knew.

This time was different… she couldn't find it in her heart to hate Freddie for putting her daughter through this, because in her very soul she knew he was feeling the same thing and mourned for them both.

Her daughter had been so strong publicly for those weeks before her friends went to Yerba and during the workshop before she decided to be with Freddie… just like she had been when her boyfriend Glenn had broke her heart at the same age. However, mother and child reacted the same way in private: breaking down completely, but Jade didn't have friends that stood by her then, but went off to some God forsaken country that Steven Shay had to backchannel save them from… and apparently doing the same right now…

Mrs. West was pulled back from delving into her own memories with hearing the doorbell ring from the front of the house. She looked over her shoulder wondering who could be bothering them at this hour. She took a moment to take one last glance at her fitfully sleeping daughter then headed downstairs. She quickly reached the bottom floor then cut through the dinning room to the front door then sparing a quick look through the peephole. She pulled away from the door and contemplated whether to open the door or not.

After a few seconds of thought, she opened the door to see Cat, Robbie, Beck, the Sinjin boy and a male and female teenager she didn't recognize standing on her porch. It unnerved her at times how much Cat looked like Taylor, except having red velvet hair instead of being brunette and gaining a tan over the last year, at that age, but she was just as sweet and kind as her departed friend, so for the most part it didn't bother her. However, the Van Cleef boy looking like Glenn at that age annoyed her to no end and was glad that Jade avoided contact with the boy whenever possible.

Cat greeted the West Matriarch with a dampened expression, "Hi Mrs. West. We came to see Jade to…" She glanced over to Beck, Robbie and Sinjin for help, but they were at a lost for words, so Cat looked back to Mrs. West and finished, "I don't know, but we should be here."

She studied the group for a few moments: Cat failing miserably at hiding her sadness, Robbie nervously shuffling his feet back and forth and Sinjin almost frightened to be standing with them. She stopped to give particularly close attention to Beck, who looked somber and nearly at a loss as Cat… but her instincts warned her not to take the teenager at face value. He after all was the young man that broke her daughter's heart in the first place and immediately mentally questioned about his motivations of being here.

Mrs. West paid no real mind to the other two teenagers as she stepped aside and motioned for Cat to come inside and instructed, "Come inside sweetheart." Once the redhead was inside and draped an arm around the shoulders of the teenager, Ruby turned her attention on the boys. "I am sorry gentleman, but I can't let you into my home at this hour."

Sinjin appeared evidently relieved as he blew out a breath. Apparently he found Mrs. West just as scary as Jade and immediately took a step backwards to the steps and managed not fall backwards.

The male teenager she didn't recognize spoke with a clear tone and a respectful nod of his head to mistress of the home and to avoid her eyes, "Of course ma'am. We wouldn't dare to think that we could impose ourselves. If you would please let her know that we were here."

Ruby nodded in return acknowledging the sign of respect and glanced at Beck to see that he looked like he wanted to argue with her for a moment until the young man that answered her gave the actor a harsh glare which Beck caught sight. The actor matched the stare and the slightly shorter teenager didn't back down from what could be argued to be a challenging gaze. Mrs. West wondered for a moment what would cause the teenager to openly challenge Beck: a sign of respect to her or maybe a sign of loyalty to Freddie. She couldn't know either way at the moment nor did she have the time to inquire.

The dark curly haired teenager looked to Cat and spoke, "Just call when you need us to pick you up."

Cat nodded then gave Robbie a thankful smile while Mrs. West spoke to all of them, "Goodnight" then shut the door behind her.

Ruby rested her hands on each of Cat's shoulders and looked down at her as she spoke. "Jade's asleep for the moment and may not say it when she wakes up, but I think she'll appreciate you being here. Can I get you anything sweetie?"

Cat shook her head no.

* * *

><p>The group was left standing on the front porch with Robbie looking at a loss on what to do, Sinjin eager to get as far away from the Wests' home while Dusty held his stare to Beck. The Canadian born actor was becoming quite annoyed with it if his frown was any indication. So it was left up to Ava to be the voice of reason as she glanced at the staring teenagers as she could clearly see that tension rising between the pair, "I guess we need to get going? We can come by in the morning to check on her."<p>

Beck broke away his staring at Dusty to glance at the shorter teenager and answer with an uncertain tone, "Right. We can come over in the morning to let her know we're here for her."

Sinjin liked that idea as he was already down the steps as Beck blew out a breath and regretfully started walking down the steps to join Sinjin with Robbie right behind him. Ava gave a slight frown as she started to follow them, but as she reached the middle step, she sensed that the lack of Dusty's presence.

The brunette turned to see Dusty taking a seat at the end of the swing on the right side of the door and pulled his jacket tight across his front and got comfortable in his seat.

Ava walked back up the steps with a thoroughly perplexed expression as she looked at the webmaster. "What are you doing?"

He glanced up at her with an expression that questioned her sanity for asking such a question as to him it was clear what he was doing. "I'm sitting."

She raised an eyebrow as she asked, "Sitting?"

He gave her a patient nod while answering, "Yes."

Ava shook her head and asked genuinely curious, "You're just going to sit there? Until the morning?"

Dusty looked up at the brunette with an indignant expression and snapped softly, "What would you have me do Cohen? Go home and go to bed and pretend everything is alright? You can do that, but I can't and the only thing left I can do is to sit, so I sit and I wait. It may be pointless and useless and may not make one bit of difference, but I have to try."

The short brunette blew out a soft breath as she studied the teenager for a moment and contemplated her choices. She made up her mind by taking a seat on the swing next to the quickly becoming brooding teenager. He refused to meet her eyes as she cautiously looked to the teenager staring out to the other side of the street watching as the others got into their cars, particularly Beck with the actor staring back. The actor finally broke eye contact as he got into his car with Robbie getting into the passenger seat. Sinjin waited as he was bewildered why his girlfriend wasn't coming along, but Ava waved him off.

The dirty blonde curly haired teenager gave a confused, but accepting nod then headed to his own vehicle across the street. He started it up and pulled away as he passed a glance back across to his girlfriend.

"Your ride's leaving," Dusty commented with a dry tone seeing the curly haired teen driving away.

Ava gave a quick nod then retorted with a small smile, "Jade gave me a chance while _everyone_ else passed me over… I guess I can sit too… going home and to bed doesn't seem like all that of a good idea."

Dusty cracked his first smile since hearing that Freddie took off for reasons they could barely piece together (or believe the same thing could happen again with the iCarly crew), but he had his suspicions. He pulled off his hooded leather jacket then turned to drape it over her shoulders and pulled the hood on her head.

She looked to him with a curious expression which he returned with a smirk and voiced, "You might as well stay warm as we sit in vigil."

The brunette gave a small smile then tucked her legs up on the seat then rested her head on his shoulder.

The Southern teenager remained silent as he kept a watchful eye out as he took up his charge that Freddie once trusted him in doing during Nevel's interview with Jade and a said a silent prayer to his mother to watch over and bring whatever comfort she could to his friends.

* * *

><p>Beck gripped the wheel tight on his GTO as he held up his PearPhone to his right ear. He took several deep breaths with a clenched jaw as he focused intently on the road ahead of him. He heard the other end of the line ring several times until he heard a voice come up on the other end, "<em>This is Carly. I can't talk right now. Leave a message and I'll get back to you.<em>"

The fluffy haired actor snorted out an irritated breath then answered the cheerful voice, "Carly, it's Beck. Call me as soon as you can… just… just let me know that you're alright." He pressed the end call button on the pear shaped phone and threw it on the seat next to him with a fit of disgust. He clenched the wheel with his other hand as he tried to clear his mind enough to safely drive himself home.

* * *

><p>Inside the Wests' residence, Cat clasped her hands together and let her nervousness play out on her face (as if she really had any control over displaying how she truly felt other than during her acting) as she entered Freddie's room. She glanced around the mostly dark room, lit only by the light pouring in from the hallway and little light outside filtering through the bedroom window. The corners of her mouth lifted at seeing some of the playful items of Freddie's room that she would love to explore, but quickly turning to see Jade's fitful sleeping form in Freddie's bed caused her to lose her momentary excitement.<p>

The red velvet haired teenager slowly walked around to the right side of the bed as that was the direction the pale teenager was facing in her slumber. She cautiously had a seat on the edge of the bed and couldn't help but sniffle at seeing the sad expression etched on Jade's face as she tried to sleep.

The noise from her sniffle and slight shift in the bed despite her light weight caused the dark brunette to stir. She blinked several times until her vision cleared enough to see Cat sitting on the bed. Confusion gripped the dark brunette for a moment at seeing her redheaded friend, but quickly brushed that aside as she sniffled and tried her best to sound intimidating, but failed miserably with her distraught voice, "Go away Cat."

The redhead ignored her and lay down beside the pale teenager. She pulled her close without any resistance as she rubbed the taller girl's back. She whispered, "It's going to be okay. You'll see… everything's going to be alright."

Jade wanted to shove the girl off of her, but she was too emotionally drained to fight, so she allowed the redhead to hold her. She closed her eyes and let her breath steady with the warm embrace surrounding her.

After about a half hour, Jade gave up trying to get back to sleep even with Cat trying to comfort her, so she was sitting at the dinning room table nursing a cup of coffee. Her mother had given her the really good stuff and it seemed to calm her fray nerves for the moment.

Cat sat to her left with a cup of juice resting in front of her on the table as the dark haired teenager's mother sat on her right. Ruby had her right leg pulled up with her foot resting on the end of the chair and her arms wrapped around her calf as she attempted to give her daughter a sympathetic expression.

The redhead swallowed as she nervously glanced to Mrs. West almost asking permission to speak even if the raven haired woman didn't really know what she was going to say. She gave the shorter teenager a slight nod of her head giving her blessing for anything she was about to say. Cat took a quick sip from her juice then whispered, "Tori, Trina and André are flying up to Seattle check on Freddie."

Jade snapped her to look at the shorter teenager with a surprised expression, but remained silent. Cat bowed her head as she was a little fearful of looking into the dark brunette's eyes for too long. The pale actress turned back to her coffee and sipped on it again.

Mrs. West glanced at her rectangular cell phone resting on top of the table. Her phone still remained silent even after she left several messages for Spencer to call her as soon as he got any of them, which of course she made after nearly having to pry it out of Jade to the reason she was home so early without Freddie, calling the police up in Olympia and sending a message for the Air Force to deliver to Steven.

She contemplated her next words or if she should speak at all. She knew silence may be for the best for her daughter to work out her feelings, but also could be bad if her feelings started festering into something that would be detrimental to the teenager, so she spoke, "Something very similar happened to me when I was your age."

Jade turned to her mother with a raised eyebrow and sat her coffee down on the table. Cat looked just as curious as to what the older West was going to say.

Ruby took a deep breath and began with a faint smile, "There was this couple that loved each other very much and they were going to be spending the weekend together with just their happiness. They were just going to forget about all the worries of life and what the world thought about them… as the world thought that they were nuts being together, but then something happened on that first day and the guy just—" She paused to snap her fingers then continued, "Just took off as soon as he got the call that the other girl was in trouble, because he could do no less."

Cat cautiously asked, "So you went through this too? Your boyfriend left?"

Jade looked back and forth between her friend and her mother as her curiosity of what her mother was saying cut through all the whirl of emotions she was still reeling from inside her heart.

Ruby softly shook her head and whispered with a small smile, "No sweetheart, I was the other girl…"

Lynn Residence  
>Friday, Late July, 1980<p>

Ruby West's room was a dark room of blacks and purples as she was sitting hunched over on the end of her black sheet covered bed with her back to her bedroom door. There were various posters of the popular gothic rock bands (mostly from England) of the day: Bauhaus, Cocteau Twins and The Sisters of Mercy. She was literally one of the first of the Goths in the US (it being 1980 and all). The only thing that stood out was a collection of pinned butterflies in a glass case hanging on the wall.

She quickly took in shallow breaths through her nose. She had refused to cry. She wouldn't give Glenn or the rest of the world the satisfaction of knowing how much he had hurt her… how he had taken a hammer to her heart… she could learn to hate hammers.

The raven haired teenager didn't know how long she sat there before she heard the soft and quiet footsteps then the slight pulling away of the bed from her behind as someone sat down beside her.

The person spoke so quietly she wondered for a moment if he had actually spoken, "Ruby?"

She turned her head slowly and faced Steven Shay. He had dark brown hair that went down past over his jaw line, but didn't reach his shoulders.

"I'm not going to cry," she whispered in defiance staring at his hazel eyes. "I am not going to cry," she choked out.

She saw his heartbreaking through his eyes and face and she couldn't take that compassion he was displaying. She shut her eyes and covered her mouth with a hand. Steven wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. She latched on and gripped tightly to his perfecto leather jacket and heaved out a cry into the crook of his neck and started weeping. Steven closed his own eyes and embraced his own pain for her.

"I'm so sorry Ruby," he whispered then kissed the top of her head.

She didn't know how much time had passed as he held her and rocked her gently as she cried. She heard his whispers to her that he was there and that it was going to be alright. Finally she lifted her head up to look at him with mascara and tears running down her cheeks. She sniffled a few times before stating, "I got a little make up on your jacket."

He kissed her forehead before meeting her eyes with a smile. He whispered back, "It's okay Ruby; black jacket, black mascara, no one is going to notice."

She let out a relieved laugh and lowered her head to rest her forehead on his cheek.

Steven tightened his grip around her waist and whispered, "I want you get some things and come with me."

She lifted her head and raised an eyebrow when she looked at him. "Where do you want to go?"

"Going to Taylor's; have a nice little sleepover," he replied with a hint of a smile.

She sniffled again, but kept the smile on her face, "I'm a little old for sleepovers."

"I may be a dumb guy, but I'm smart enough to know that you might need a little 'girl time' and who better to help you than another girl. Please, for me?"

She took a deep breath and released it then wiped away some of the tears and mascara off of her cheeks with the back of her hands. "Fine."

He grinned happily in response. "Thank you."

* * *

><p>Steven pulled up into the Dorfman driveway about twenty minutes later. Taylor was already standing in front of the open garage apparently having waiting the entire time. Barry sat on a stool at the workbench to one side of the garage.<p>

The pair climbed off the Harley, but Ruby, hefting her back pack to make sure it was still securely on her back, was a little more hesitant as she looked in wonder as she saw the Dorfman residence for the first time seeing that it was such an expensive home. She finally started walking towards the bandana wearing teenager with Steven trailing behind.

Taylor smiled at Ruby then pulled her into a hug. Ruby was shocked, but quickly overcame it with softly patting the slightly shorter girl's back. Taylor pulled away first and looped her arm through Ruby's arm and grinned at the taller girl. "Let me show my house," she whispered excitingly. She then gently pulled the girl along towards the garage entrance to the home.

Steven started slowly walking backwards back to his bike, but stopped in his tracks when he heard Taylor's younger brother, Barry let out a breath and asked, "Where are you going?"

"To see someone who I thought was a friend," he whispered out coldly then turned around and hopped back on his bike.

* * *

><p>It was about fifteen minutes later that Steven pulled his motorcycle up in his usual spot at the end of the large vacant grassy lot. There were a number of vehicles with various teenagers hanging around as was customary on Friday afternoons when school was in session. The long haired teenager turned off the ignition and got off of his ride. He slipped his keys into his pocket and approached the gathering to look for one particular individual.<p>

Bobby smiled as he intercepted Steven. "Hey Steven?" he greeted in a questioning tone.

Steven stared at the former football player coldly. "Bobby, get out of my way or I'm going to jank up your other knee worst than your first one."

Bobby swallowed nervously and stood aside. He walked by the former football player and scanned the group of teenagers just hanging out around the yard and their vehicles. They were milling about and exchanging stories and what they had done over the week. He caught his target sitting on the hood of the black '69 Dodge Charger with his new girlfriend. She was that same redhead that he had seen Glenn with at the beach a few weeks ago and wouldn't give a second glance if he passed her in the hallway. He realized that was probably the reason he didn't recognize her earlier before school let out for the summer.

Steven stopped a few feet in front of the Charger. "Glenn, whatever your name is," he greeted the pair. "I see everyone is welcoming you with open arms."

"Hey Steven," Glenn greeted Steven in a hesitant tone.

"So everyone is cool with this bullchiz," Steven stated, whether than asked in a detached voice. The others turned their attention to the scene. "I see where our self-dignity went: right down the crapper. We're not the self-proclaimed outcasts; we're just the a-holes."

"This from the guy who never cared?" Bobby asked dismissively.

"I may have not cared, but you _always_ knew where I stood. I don't bullshit _anyone_ and I'm not going to start now. I'm here for one reason and when I'm done, the rest of you can all go to Hell."

"Why are you here then?" Glenn asked in a relaxed tone.

He turned his head slowly to meet the other's eyes and in a cold tone replied, "I'm here to beat into the ground."

Glenn blinked and swallowed nervously.

The corner of Steven's mouth lifted ever so slightly. "You really thought you weren't going to answer to me?"

"I thought maybe you'd mind your own business like you always have unless it came to Taylor or involved her."

Steven snorted out dismissively, "And disregard Ruby? Man you are a dumbass."

Glenn raised his hands up. "Steven, I'm not looking for trouble from you."

Steven growled out, "Then you should have had the balls to breakup with her first before you hopped to your mistress behind her back."

The redhead was about to shout something, but Glenn held up a hand and looked to her with pleading eyes to stop. She relented and closed her mouth.

The curly haired teenager looked back to the Steven and asked with a challenging voice, "You really want to do that? What's Taylor going to say?"

"Don't know," Steven grinned, "We'll talk about it when we talk about it, but how my girlfriend and I will discuss what is about to happen is going to be the least of your worries."

"Maybe you'll be concerned when she wonders how many times Ruby cheat on me with you."

Steven smirked and answered in a tone suggesting he was the cat playing with the mouse, "You know better than that. If she wanted me, she wouldn't have wasted her time with you and you can sprout that bullchizz until your face is as blue as your balls, but of course I'm guessing she's took care of that." He glanced at the redhead after that remark. She sneered back.

Glenn clenched his jaw and got off the hood off his car to approach the long haired teenager.

Steven approached as well, but some younger boy, some new upcoming junior Steven didn't know that well, tried to step between in hopes of defusing the situation. He raised his hands up hoping to show he wasn't threatening. Steven didn't care and grabbed one of the boy's thumbs and twisted the wrist and pushed down the thumb towards the ground. The stringy black haired teenager immediately went to his knees to prevent his wrist and thumb from braking. He looked around to the rest of them. "Do any of you think I've gotten soft over the last few months? You'd be amazed at all the stuff Colonel Dorfman has taught me over that time. Unless you care for me to demonstrate any of what I've learned on you, then you will all back the jank off!"

The guys that had approached hoping to prevent a fight started stepping back from the scene. "That's better." He looked down at the junior and shoved him away and onto his back. He scurried off and Steven looked to Glenn. The pair approached each other to a little more than three feet between them. They were each gauging the other waiting to see who would throw the first punch.

Glenn was leaner than Steven and was just a little bit quicker in his footwork than the long haired teenager. Those were Glenn's main advantages in any fight with Steven, unfortunately for Glenn, Steven knew about that over the last year of just some good natured scuffles between them on the weekends.

Steven swung with a wide right hook, but Glenn ducked it (as expected) with a smile on his face. "A little slow Steven—" he started but was rudely interrupted with a sharp left uppercut from Steven to the jaw that snapped his head back and sent him tumbling back. Steven was on top of him in an instance and grabbed him by the neck with one hand and started punching him in the face with the other. The first punch broke his glasses and popped him good in the nose. Glenn clawed at the hand around his throat with one hand and tried to protect his face with his other arm, but Steven just powered through giving the boy a split lip and bloody nose after the first few punches.

Glenn's new girlfriend had other ideas then to watch her boyfriend get beat to a bloody pulp. She jumped on Steven's back wrapping one forearm around his neck and grabbing hold of his long hair. She yanked hard almost to the point of ripping some out of the scalp. Steven growled as he let go of Glenn and pushed off to get to his feet with her on his back. She was flailing on his back as he got to his feet. He was able to reach back and grab her by her long red hair and gave a good pull and she tumbled off of his shoulder.

She rolled to the ground, but was amazingly quick to come back at him as he stood up straight. The redhead tried to claw at his face with her sharpened nails, but Steven with a closed fist backhanded the girl with his left hand and she went face first into the grassy ground. He immediately turned his attention to face Glenn just in time to see the slimmer teenager spear him from the side and they tumbled to the ground. They rolled for a few seconds until Steven grabbed a mess of Glenn's shirt and shoved him off.

The pair got to their feet quickly and Glenn threw a few quick jabs. One connected with Steven's jaw that he shook off and replied with one back just under Glenn's ribcage. He bent over as the wind was knocked out of him. Steven grabbed him by the shoulder and by the back and belt of his jeans and hauled him off of his feet and flung him towards the side of the Charger. He flew in mid-air for the briefest of moments before his side and shoulder smacked the driver's side window shattering it then him dropping to the ground. Steven bent down and grabbed the curly haired teenager by the collar and pulled him to his feet. He then slammed him against the car. "Have fun with your little whore," Steven growled out in a whisper.

Steven pulled back and looked to Glenn for a moment just before pulling him forward and kneeing him hard between the legs. Glenn gargled out a sound. Steven lifted him back up and whispered into his other ear, "Or maybe not." The long haired boy then dropped his former friend on the ground; he instantly formed a fetal position holding himself and started rocking back and forth. Steven brushed himself off and flicked his head so that his hair flung out of his vision.

Steven turned and headed back to his motorcycle. As he passed Glenn's new girlfriend sitting with a hand pressed against her cheek and decided to stop and spare a glance towards her. "A little piece of advice for you: if you are going to start a fight with a man, you better be able to take it like a man." He then left her to think that over as he went to his bike without any interference from now all his former friends and associates.

* * *

><p>Ruby had washed her face and was completely clear of her usual dark eyeliner and eye shadow. Also unusual for the dark haired beauty was that she had her raven hair pulled back in a ponytail. She looked and felt… plain. She had already changed for the night into some sweatpants and oversize T-shirt. She let out a tired breath as she sat at the island in the large kitchen and watched the brunette girl dig through the freezer for something.<p>

Taylor took a seat across from her on another stool and sat a tub of chocolate ice cream in front of Ruby. The paler teenager looked to the brunette as if she was crazy. "Your suggestion is ice cream?"

"It's comfort food," she replied with a smile then held up a spoon.

Ruby rolled her eyes and shook her head before taking the spoon from the brunette. She looked one last time at the brunette then took a spoonful of ice cream out of the tub. She shoveled it into her mouth. After swallowing the soft and creamy ice cream, she stated, "Let's make it clear: you're not braiding my hair."

Taylor's brow furled. "Why would I braid your hair?"

She shook her head. "That's what you do at sleepovers."

The brunette blinked and gave the darker haired girl a contemplating look. "Oh… I never had a sleep over or been to one."

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Never?"

The artist shook her head. "Nope. I was never invited to one. Other girls at school never liked me around."

"I'm sorry," Ruby whispered.

She replied without regret or sadness, just graceful acceptance, "That's just my life: people don't understand me and they don't care to, so they don't like me around. I really don't understand most people either, so it works out."

"Isn't that lonely?"

Taylor looked down at the counter and whispered, "At times, but I'm not lonely anymore."

Ruby nodded. "He loves you, you know?"

Taylor continued to look at the counter, but grinned. "I know."

"I'm happy he found you especially when I had…" she stopped to take another scoop of ice cream into her mouth.

Taylor looked up and whispered, "I'm sorry."

Ruby swallowed the ice cream and looked at the artist, but didn't really look at her. "I thought… _he_ loved me."

"Do you know why he went with her?"

Ruby nodded. "I know exactly why, because we never…" She averted her eyes down towards the container and poked the spoon into the ice cream.

Taylor remained quiet just looking sympathetically at the tired teenager.

Still distracted by the ice cream, Ruby continued, "I guess he had his needs and I wouldn't satisfy them so he looked someplace else."

It took Taylor a moment to realize what she meant, but replied with, "Oh…" The artist then a little blush formed on her cheeks.

Ruby looked up to see her expression. "Yeah… I'm not active as I make it look. I have my image to project and look where it got me…" she chuckled sadly, "sitting here eating ice cream."

"At least you have ice cream?" Taylor replied with an unsure smile.

Ruby snorted out a laugh at the artist's sweet attempt to cheer her up. She gave a small smile to the brunette and replied, "I think I have more than that: I know who my friends are."

Taylor smiled brightly at her and the girls broke out into a relieving laugh. After a therapeutic laugh, Taylor spoke, "It's alright for it to hurt for a while."

Ruby nodded with an accepting smile.

"But you have us," Taylor smiled hoping it was enough.

"Thanks Taylor."

"You're welcome," she replied happy that she could help.

A few moments later, they heard the door open from the garage. They exchanged looks briefly and got up to see who was coming inside the house. It wasn't too hard a guess for either of the girls about the identity of the individual. They trotted over, bare feet and socks on the linoleum floor to meet the individual at the door entering the kitchen.

Steven stopped as he met the girls and blinked at nearly running into them. They looked at him just as hesitantly: there was dry blood on his knuckles and on the end of the sleeves of his jacket and grass stains on his blue jeans with his hair a mess.

Steven and Ruby's eyes met and the old friends just looked at one another having a conversation with just a twitch of a jaw muscle or eyes narrowing on the other or a slight tilt of the head. It was Steven that was the first to speak in a quiet tone, "I didn't hurt him as badly as Evan, but… he's going to have some performance problems for at least the next few days… a new pair of glasses and he needs to replace a window in the Charger."

Ruby looked down to the floor and wrapped her arms around herself. "You shouldn't have done that… I still care about him a little even if he…"

Steven growled out, "I know… but I couldn't just let him get away with that. I found him flaunting being with her to everyone and no one cared what he had done."

Ruby snapped her head up to meet his eyes again and displayed on her face her shock at that bit of news. Steven shook his head then ran a hand through his hair on the left side and when he brought his hand back down, a number of hairs were caught between his fingers. He sighed, "Damn." He pulled the hairs out between his fingers and onto the countertop of the counter beside the door. He looked back to the two girls and stated, "She's a hair puller."

Both of the girls looked shocked as some of his hair came out. It wasn't enough to show any kind of bald spot, but it was more than just a few stray hairs. Taylor closed the distance and took his other hand. "Come on, let me clean you up." She then pulled him gently to the stool she was sitting in a few moments ago and pointed to him to sit. He rolled his eyes, but complied in taking a seat.

Taylor went over to the kitchen sink and took a rag out of a drawer and began to wet it as Steven took off his biker jacket and set it on the island. Ruby stood beside him and leaned against the side of the island.

Ruby asked, "She grabbed you by the hair?"

"She didn't like me pounding on Glenn's face."

"What did you do?"

Steven laughed darkly. "Her face became acquainted with the back of my hand."

Taylor walked back over and started wiping off the side of his face. She asked, "You hit her?"

Steven raised an eyebrow. "She tried to claw at my face sweetie; I wasn't really concerned with what kind of sex organs she had at the moment. Would either one of you cared if someone pulled at your hair?"

Both girls looked to each other for a moment and shrugged their shoulders simultaneously. Ruby suggested, "You could finally cut your hair."

Steven blinked at her as Taylor went on to wiping the dry blood off of his knuckles. "Do you know how long it took me to get it this long and voluminous?"

"Yes, I do. I remember when you use to have short hair and this," she gentle lifted some hair and let it fall. "It makes you look like a girl," she replied with half smile.

He flicked his hair away from the side of his face with a jerk of his neck. "It does not… besides, it sounds like you're just jealous."

"Me jealous of your hair? You can't compete with this," she laughed back and pointed to her on black hair.

He laughed back at the pale teenager.

Taylor smiled to herself as she watched her boyfriend and now friend banter and that he was able to get Ruby to smile as she wiped the dry blood off the other hand.

* * *

><p>It was approaching midnight and Ruby lay across the couch in the large Dorfman living room with had her head resting on Taylor's lap drifting off to sleep watching <em>The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson<em>. Steven (finally having switched into some shorts and a white undershirt) was sitting on the floor in front of them with his back against the couch and laughing at a joke that Johnny had just made on the screen between bites of popcorn.

The raven haired teenager felt Taylor reach over and stroke the top of Steven's head gently, avoiding the area where Glenn's new girlfriend had pulled on his hair and heard Taylor whisper, "I love you."

Through fluttering eyes, Ruby saw Steven turn his head and smiled up at his girlfriend. "I love you too cupcake."

She could feel the young artist shift in her seat and feel the gentle touch of her fingertips brushing some loose raven hair that had fallen across her face then heard the soft whisper, "And I love you too my scary friend."

West Residence  
>Present<p>

Ruby rested her chin on her raised knee as she looked down on the polished wood table and took several shallow breaths as she pulled herself out of days long passed.

Jade took a deep breath after listening to her mother's story. She initially wanted to laugh at the point her mother wanted to make to her as she had guessed so wrong with how Jade was feeling at the moment, but another side of her was too intrigued about the eye-opening story of how deep the relationship between her mother and Carly's father ran along with the deceased Mrs. Shay. She took another sip from her coffee to help keep her nerves calm.

Ruby continued with a somber, yet firm tone, "Taylor never doubted Steven's love for her. I don't think you should doubt Freddie's… his feelings for you just because of how tonight turned out."

The pale teenager passed her mother another glance and shook her head as she was too tired to try to explain to her mother how she was feelings. She was not going to be the first one she spilled her feelings to, so she did the only productive thing she knew to do: take another sip of her coffee.

The raven haired woman blew out a soft breath as she felt that her words had been in vain for her daughter. This was one of those times that she wished Taylor was here as she knew that her sister all but in blood would know exactly what to say. She didn't wallow in her regret for long as the doorbell rang and drew the attention of all three of the women.

Mrs. West cautiously got up from her seat and made her way to the door then glanced through the peephole. Her brow furled at seeing the same young lady that was with the others earlier, but now wearing the black jacket that the other young man she didn't recognize wore. She opened the door and gave the young lady a curious expression as she asked, "Yes?"

She gave the lady of the house an awkward smile as she asked, "Hello Mrs. West, I'm sorry to bother you, but may I use your bathroom?"

She blinked for a moment as glanced at the teenager trying to figure out why she was on her front porch. "You came back?"

Ava put on an embarrassing smile as she lowered her eyes, "Actually, I never left."

"You never left?" The West Matriarch looked over to her left and saw that the young man sitting on her porch swing. She looked back to Ava as the teenager answered, "Yes, ma'am. We…"

Dusty looked up with a respectful manner and answer, "Thought just going home and leaving our well wishes wasn't enough. With all due respect ma'am, you said that I couldn't come inside, you didn't bar me from sitting on the porch swing."

She crossed her arms under her chest and frowned at the young man. However, unlike others, he didn't appear to be intimidated by her expression and ever so slightly unnerved her. She shook her head and motioned for Ava to come inside, "Both of you come inside."

The webmaster looked weary of the invitation remembering the last time someone seemed obligated to invite him inside whether than personal desire.

Ava was the first to enter with Ruby pointing and quickly whispering to her the direction of the bathroom. Mrs. West turned and noticed that he remained outside and the look of apprehension on his face. She waved him inside again and instructed, "Please, come inside."

He gave a respectful nod as he replied, "Ma'am." He cautiously walked past her to enter the foyer. She shut and locked the door behind her then escorted him to the dining room to the left. The Southern teenager took the briefest of moments to glance around the impressive home before entering the dinning room.

Jade raised an eyebrow in surprise seeing the webmaster and Cat put on a curious expression.

Cat was the first to speak up, "You came back?"

He shrugged a shoulder and slightly tilted his head as he answered, "Never left?"

Jade spoke curiously, "You never left?" She looked to Cat for an explanation.

The red velvet haired teenager answered, "We all came over: Robbie, Beck, Sinjin, Ava to stay with you, but your mom didn't want any of the guys to stay and I guess she doesn't know Ava."

The dark brunette looked back to the teenager and raised her pierced (but missing eyebrow ring). "You've been sitting out there?"

He cracked a soft smile as he asked, "I'm good at waiting; I get it from my mother and where else would I be?" He shrugged a shoulder and glanced away as he answered his own question, "Well other than having Freddie's back."

Jade crossed her arms in front of her to rest on the table and slightly bowed her head as she looked to the teenager with a questioning expression. Mrs. West slightly frowned as she looked to the teenager and asked with an emotionless tone, "So you're here to defend him?"

The greens streaked hair teenager was curious at her mother's tone as she had just suggested that Jade not judge Freddie harshly or at all, yet questioning Dusty. She hazarded a guess that her mother was testing the Hollywood Arts' student.

The teenager met her stare just as he would Jade's when she gave him a similar expression, "No ma'am, I'm just saying I would prefer to have my friend's back in going up against that psycho…" He looked to surprised looking Jade and finished, "…and make sure he comes back to you in one piece, but since I'm not up there, this is where I need to be."

Jade took several breaths as they visually assessed each other in a brief staring contest. The pale singer was the first to relent with an even expression as she apparently got the answers she was looking for in looking at the L.A. immigrant. She motioned to a seat further down from Cat, "Have a seat and join the party."

He maintained a guarded expression as he glanced to an apprehensive looking Cat then had a seat next to his ex-girlfriend.

Ava walked inside the dinning room about a minute later. The shorter teenager headed for the head of the table where Jade was sitting and leaned over and wrapped her arms over Jade's shoulder blades and just under her neck for a hug.

Jade tensed up from the surprised contact.

All the girl could come up to whisper was, "We're here."

The shorter girl pulled slightly from the embrace to look at the dark brunette with a hopeful expression.

Jade swallowed as she was unsure how to respond as her usual technique of just snapping at the person for showing that kind of concern didn't seem appropriate… or maybe from being with Freddie, the right thing to do. She whispered out cautiously, "Thanks."

The overlooked actress gave a reassuring nod then had a seat one down further than where Mrs. West had sat by her daughter.

Dusty rested his elbows on the table while resting his balled and cupped fist in front of his mouth. He snorted out a breath as he cracked a smile as he softly chuckled.

Mrs. West looked to him with a perplexed expression while Jade's voice filled with irritation along with a bit of curiosity as she asked, "What's so funny?"

He dropped his hands away from his mouth and let a halfhearted smile form on his face as he answered, "I was thinking back to the first time I sat across from you. You told me no like I was one of those annoying guys that would try to make their moves on you while he was gone. Now you invite me to sit at your table."

The pale actress snorted out a soft breath as a corner of her lips lifted up. She replied with a cautious tone, "You told me that I couldn't tell you where to sit… it wasn't the Deep South in the sixties. You weren't afraid of me."

"No I'm not… that's why I can ask you this question: 'What in the world is going on?'"

She clenched her jaw tight then snapped at him, "What is going on is that Carly Shay is janking Freddie and me over. Carly ignored Freddie and purposely went to see that nut so Freddie would go running up to save her janking behind."

Dusty took a soft breath then calmly replied, "I have a little trouble believing she did such a thing on purpose."

The upset actress looked him straight in the eyes and challenged, "Why? Because you had a ten minute conversation with her?"

Dusty relaxed back in his chair and responded casually, "Hour long actually, but from what I could assess of her and I can obviously be wrong… she didn't strike me as the type to purposely pull something like what you're suggesting."

The tired actress sarcastically snapped, "Well you know chizz about what Carly Shay would do to Freddie… or let happen to him."

He slightly tilted his head to the side and retorted without a hint of being intimidated by the fierce teenager, "_I _made that point to you at the poker game, remember? I've never asked him, you or anyone else about what happened. I never pried."

She tempted him as the Serpent tempted Eve in the Garden, "But you really do want to know the truth?"

Dusty slightly frowned as he cautiously answered, "I've kept my thoughts to myself on the matter… but I do have my suspicions."

She narrowed her look upon him and questioned, "Those are?"

He spared a quick glance to Cat and Ava then back at the pale and eyes bloodshot teenager. He softly bit his tongue for a moment then answered, "You don't pick your life up on you own and move out of state and cut off almost all contact with your best friends unless something went down that included them somehow. It must have been some really messed up crap to get to that point."

The dark haired teenager leaned forward and looked Dusty straight in the eyes. She spoke with a soft, but cold tone, "Oh how right you are. Do you want to know the story now? Do you want to know the _real_ Carly Shay and her demonic little sidekick? Do you want to know the truth?"

Dusty slightly frowned while drumming his fingertips on the table as he felt the girl that he had nicknamed 'Angel Girl' was acting like a Crossroads Demon offering him something clause free in exchange for his soul.

Mrs. West cautiously spoke up, "Jade?"

She turned her head to look to her mother with a tired, but resolved expression. "I think they have a right to know. Why should they be fooled by her innocent little act anymore? Why should I keep her secret?"

The concerned mother took in a soft breath, but really didn't know how to argue with her daughter that wouldn't end in a shouting match or make it look like she was taking Carly's side over her side. She may have loved her friends' daughter, but not over her own.

Jade cracked a victorious smile at winning her point then looked back to Dusty and started, "Well I'm going to tell you…"

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><p>Author's Note: Some of you may have noticed that the flashback comes from one of my other stories. I found it surprisingly relevant to the chapter and thought that there was no need for me to reinvent the wheel for this story. Oh, and just a quick reminder again of who exactly is Ava, a good view of the character can be seen in 'Helen Back Again'. The light brunette sitting behind Andra and Robbie while Jade and Tori are playing husband and wife with Cat as their child at the start of the episode is who I am using for Ava. Thanks again for reading and I hope to have the next chapter by Friday.<p> 


	33. Chapter 33

Author's Note: Hello dear readers. I hope your week and weekend was a nice one. I've been busy with a lot of writing, so it slows everyone down. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

ArtisticAngel6: I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Twilight Warrior 627: I'm glad you think the last chapter was awesome.

IntrovertedMind: Thanks for your first review. Don't be shy in reviewing in the future. I enjoy all the character exploration I am able to do with everyone. I hope to continue to do it with the other characters that I haven't delved into yet. I'm happy that I was able to integrate Freddie so well into the group. I keep getting reminded of when the writers of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine were able to integrate Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation into their show.

PD31: Yes, I still plan the Blooptorious tie-in. It's going to be the bookend to this story before I start publishing 'We Love Each Other'. I hope that the starting of the resolution was still satisfying even if it was unexpected.

EddieVF: I'm glad I was able to ease the pain from the cliffhanger. The flashback seemed appropriate.

Meeeee: I'm glad you love it. Thanks for reviewing.

BushwellFanNYC: Jade is a little bit genre-savvy. She's not going to necessarily react as one might expect, but I don't want to spoil it so I'll leave it at that. The group going up and why will be addressed in this chapter.

Well, on with the story. I hope you enjoy.

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><p>Chapter 33<p>

Benson Apartment  
>Seattle, WA<br>1:22 A.M., January 1, 2012

A loud banging from the front door of the apartment woke Marissa Benson with a start from her pleasant slumber. She filled with irritation as she roused herself from sleep out of her bed then tied her robe closed as she exited her bedroom. T-Bo had a key and could easily let himself into the apartment after his New Years partying. She had made it quite clear to the Groovy Smoothie manager that he better not return to the apartment drunk or he would be out of the apartment before the sun rose.

She blew out an irritated breath as she reached the door. She took a quick peaked through the peephole, causing brunette/redhead to gasp in shock at what she saw on the other side. She stepped back and opened the door so quickly she almost pulled the door into her face.

Freddie was standing on the other side of the threshold soaked nearly to the bone with his hair matted down and water dripping down his cheeks and chin.

He barely held his head up high enough to meet his mother's eyes and in barely above a horsed whisper, he greeted his shocked mother, "I would have let myself in, but I didn't want to freak you out with someone just walking inside."

"Freddie! What are—"

He raised a hand and gave her a harsh glare, "Don't start. I don't want to hear a word from you." He walked past his mother and headed for his room; dripping water the entire way which he knew would cause his mother nothing but irritation. She had enough sense to actually follow through with his suggestion.

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><p>Freddie entered his room and cut directly through to walk into his bathroom as he pulled his book bag strap over his head and dropped it idly on the floor while his other hand started unbuttoning his shirt. He grabbed a hanging towel with his other hand as he mother had insisted keeping his bathroom furnished despite him not living in the apartment anymore. He had dried off for the most part between the ride from Olympia and Seattle with only getting a little soaked from the taxi into the lobby of the Bushwell Plaza as it was a minor miracle of finding a taxi to take him especially during New Years (which at this point he considered could really have been a minor miracle after the events of last week).<p>

After drying off his face and hair, he stuffed the towel over the hanging bar just enough for it not to slip off then pulled off his flannel patterned shirt and dropping the wet article of clothing on the bathroom floor followed by pulling his white athletic undershirt over his head and dropping it with discarded shirt. The dark haired teenager turned to the sink and quickly turned on the faucet with a quick jerk of the hot and cold knobs to get some warm water. He cupped his hands under the pouring water then leaned down to splash water on his face to try to scrub away the rain water and last few hours followed by trying to sleek his hair back to keep it from irritating his forehead.

He blew out a breath as he turned the water off then lifted his head. He caught a glance of his reflection in the mirror above his sink before he could grab the stuffed hanging towel to dry his face off. He rested his hands on either side of the sink to direct his full attention on his reflection.

The former Seattleite never gave his reflection much thought. He look in a mirror countless times in his life to see if his hair was brushed or to see that embarrassing pimple or check his teeth during brushing and flossing, but never really looked at himself.

He stared hard at his reflection and his reflection stared hard in return. He was familiar with the old saying of the eyes were the gateway to the soul and he partially believed it with all the times he had looked into Jade's eyes. Through her eyes, he could see past all the airs and fronts she put on and see to her inner beauty and real kindness and sweetness and the person that wanted to be loved. Now he was looking into his own soul and swore he felt the softest of touches on his shoulder even when no one was behind him…

Troubled Waters  
>Seattle, WA<br>Friday, June 24, 2011

Sam tapped a button on the laptop to mute the shouting Seddie fan in his mother's basement being displayed on the hung up corner television in the mental institute. She walked around the table and shouted as she threw her hands in the air, "I don't care how many iCarly fans say I'm not crazy for liking Freddie; I know I'm crazy."

Freddie pursed his lips for a moment then whispered out softly, "Wait."

The softness or the sternness was enough to catch Sam's attention and focused on him.

He let out a soft breath then flipped a switch on the camera and placed his hand on top of the laptop and closed it.

Carly's brow furled as she saw the television in the corner fill with snow. She looked back to him realizing that he cut the transmission for iCarly and that they were off the air. "What are you doing?"

The brown eyed teenager spared her a glance to answer, "Putting an end to this nonsense."

He sat the camera down and made sure it was off then walked around the table so he could stand in front of the blonde. "Sam… I agree with you on that we shouldn't let fans have _any_ input on whether we should be together. It is none of their business and is really only between the two of us to decide." He looked over his shoulder to give Carly a disbelieving look at the notion that either of them should be making a decision about being in a relationship because of what some fans might think (especially from someone that could only shout 'Seddie' as if he were mad). However, it struck a cord with him that she seemed entirely oblivious to the idea that she was doing anything wrong.

The Seattleite shook his head brushing away the odd feeling and looking back to Sam. "You are not crazy for liking me. Odd that you somehow like me and hate me at the same time and _that_ might make you a little crazy, but you're not crazy if you just liked me without the hate." He tilted his head slightly to the side and looked up at the ceiling, "It's a little insulting that the idea of liking me would make you think you're crazy." He licked his lips to spare him an extra moment to put what he wanted to say in words that would not hurt the blonde. "Let's just cut through the chizz and get to the point of where this is going: You like me, but… I don't like you that way back… and I don't want to try to be in any kind of romantic relationship with you. I'm sorry if that hurts you, but that is how I feel."

The surrounding patients looked disappointed with his statement with various sighs and pouts.

Carly spoke up with a stern voice, "No."

Freddie turned to look over his shoulder and furl his brow. "What?"

"I said 'no'." She motioned a hand to the Sam and continued, "Don't just brush it off. Give her a chance."

Freddie's blinked as he looked to the brunette and asked, "Give her a chance?"

She walked around the table and shook her head. She cracked a small smile as she answered, "Yes. She likes you and you don't think it's crazy. Why not?"

He saw that Carly was completely serious. His mouth gapped for a moment then stated as if he was stating the sky was blue, "She hates me and makes it a point to remind me of it on a daily basis until this week."

"She does not. She likes you."

He paused as he looked the brunette straight in the eyes. They were the same beautiful ones that he had fallen in love with when he was eleven years old, but there was something else he couldn't quite consciously place, but his subconscious had no problem speaking hollowed and somewhat terrified voice, "My God… you're insane… you really believe that."

Carly blinked and took a step backwards as Freddie's mouth partially hung open and brow slightly furled. He huffed out a breath then continued, "How can you stand there and say that?"

"Because it's the truth. You're friends, why not try?"

Freddie shook his head as he couldn't believe that Carly would want the pair to actually get together and couldn't wrap his head around the notion that after all this time that Carly still believed that he and Sam were actually friends. He answered trying not to let his disbelief seep anymore into his voice, "I already gave my answer and I'm not going to argue with you." He looked to Sam and gave her a sympathetic expression as he finished, "I'm sorry… you're not crazy, but I am turning you down." He turned and picked his camera then laptop off the table and started on his way out.

He was about to walk out the door, but Carly's voice spoke up, "You know you can still have this."

Freddie stopped in his tracks just in front of the glass doors. This wasn't how the memory was supposed to finish. Carly had been too stunned to say anything as he left the institution and it was the next day and rest of the week where she advocated her case that he should give Sam a try to the point where his only solution was to leave the city and head for Los Angeles without telling her where he went.

He slowly turned with a hesitant expression to see the smiling Carly, but everyone else frozen in place. He was taken aback by what he saw and cautiously asked, "What?"

"I said you can still have this." She shrugged her shoulder with a half smile while correcting herself, "I mean, you can't be with Sam now as she's obviously has gotten over you and dating Brad, but you can have your old life back. You can have it all back: your friends, the show, your school… they will all welcome back the boy that rushed in to save Carly and the rest."

He blinked as he realized that memory of the events of just over six months ago had turned into some sort of self-reflection or daydream or maybe the stress of the night had caused him to have a detachment from reality and retreating into his own mind for protection. He answered with a hollow tone, "You're not real."

She gave him a small smile, "It depends on how you define real Freddie. We're in your head replaying your memory, so I do exist even if I'm not 'real'."

"So I'm literally talking to myself?" He rolled his eyes and mumbled, "I really have lost it."

"I guess it's fortunate that you're remembering that you're in a mental institution. On call staff."

He frowned at the tasteless joke then sat the nonexistent items in his arms back on the table and looked to the lovely image of his former friend. "So… you're the piece of me that wants to stay and pick up where I left off? What Anna tried to show me at Christmas, but blew off?"

"Who better to represent that aspect of your thinking but the girl you're in love with?"

He snapped back angrily, "I'm not in love with Carly."

She gave him a patient smile. "She's your first love. There will always be a little piece of you that will be in love with her." The construct of Carly took a step forward and continued, "You can always try with her again. You know deep down that's true and this is your best opportunity. All you have to do is go say you're sorry for what you said to her tonight. She'll take you back in an instant whether she planned the whole Nora thing or not."

He frowned then snapped at literally himself, "And leave Jade?"

The Carly construct gave him a sympathetic smile, but she didn't sugarcoat the truth, "You've already left Jade and you know it. You just showed her which one of them comes first in your life. You had to wake up from your dream at some point, why not now? The beginning of a new year and being able to start fresh back in your real life in Seattle."

He clenched his jaw and stared in her brown eyes. He gritted out, "My life in Los Angeles isn't a dream."

She cocked her head to the side and gave an agreeable smile. "Not in the literal sense, but it was an acted out fantasy: boy sets out to start his life over again in a new place and finds new friends… a very hot girlfriend… who even puts out… after escaping Hell. I mean, come on, you and Jade? Really? The geeky tech-nerd that loves watching _Galaxy Wars_ and _Celebrities Underwater_ and has his head stuck in worlds that never will exist. You're almost an archetype and not a real person and Jade… the hot mean girl with strange tastes and views that you really can't comprehend that clash with your wholesome standup boy next door persona… I mean who are you fooling? Who is she fooling?" She started laughing then bit her bottom lip before answering her own question, "You… you're just fooling yourself."

The Carly construct looked down at the floor and shook her head then looked back up at him. "It sounds like bad fan fiction to me or you… whatever, you know what I mean. You had to come back home at some point because you know this is where you belong… where you are truly happy."

Freddie took an unnecessary breath as he was just in glorified daydream. He whispered out from a realization, "Wait, you're something more… you're the piece of me that accepted that what Sam and anyone else did to me was normal. If they didn't do those things to me it would weird and I couldn't function."

She gave him an innocent smile then playfully answered, "I guess when you were finally forced to decide which one of your worldviews you were going to keep because they couldn't both co-exist anymore: your view of love and the view that Sam's treatment of you is acceptable, you really couldn't get rid of me, but just buried me. I guess it would have been easier to get rid of me if you had really stood up to Sam when she gave you that 'fuck you' apology to you about broadcasting to the world you had never been kissed and doing all the things to torment you at that point instead of caving again and kissing her the first time, but I was already too strong, me, good old Stockholm Syndrome, so I guess it's a mute point."

Freddie held his tongue and coldly stared at the part of his psyche in the form of Carly. He broke eye contact for a moment and glanced down at the table where the laptop and camera was resting. He looked back up to the construct of Carly and calmly asked, "Besides the fact of how disturbing it would be because you're in the form of Carly, why can't I just take this camera to bash your head in to get rid of you?"

She smirked at him then calmly replied, "Because it would probably be as effective as destroying a photograph and expecting the object in it to be destroyed along with it. I'm just a mental manifestation of your inner psyche."

Freddie clenched his right fist tight and thought about just punching the construct to make himself feel better even if it really wouldn't accomplish anything else.

She gave him a sympathetic smile and walked around the table to stand right in front of him without any space between them. She softly rested a hand on his chest and titled her head to the side to look him in the eyes. "Don't look sad. Things will be back to normal in no time… even better. Carly's not going to let Sam bother you anymore and you've gone all macho. No one else is going to bother you with the reputation you've established as a badass nerd. Everything is going to be better than it was before… you just have to go to her."

He took several breaths as he stared into the eyes that his memory had constructed from all the years of looking and admiring Carly. He started thinking on her… his own words to himself and wondered if that part of his was right and was this was the decision Anna was trying to prepare him for… that he should just wake up from his dream and get life back on track…

The brown eyed teenager felt a soft hand on his right shoulder and turned to look at the person touching him. He saw Jade West warmly smiling at him. He gave her a quick once over with his eyes as he turned to face her: she was wearing the same white dress she wore when she was dressed as an angel during Halloween and raven hair color with silver streaks.

He looked around and saw that the Carly construct was gone and that he was no longer in Troubled Waters, but standing in the main hallway of Hollywood Arts. He realized that his angel had pulled him out of Perdition again even if it was only in his mind. He swallowed nervously then asked, "And who are you?"

She smiled warmly at him and placed her right hand over his heart, but refused to speak. He looked down at the soft, pale hand resting on his chest and quickly realized something and voiced it, "You represent my view on how I see love?"

She gave him a soft nod as she dropped her hand off of his chest.

He shook his head and snorted out, "Where were you when I needed you? Before I took off and leaving everything behind?"

The Jade construct placed her hand on his chest again and whispered, "I'm in here… what part of you do you think gave you that push to go?"

He sarcastically retorted, "And I just had to listen to you?"

She gave smirk as she confidently answered, "If you wanted to be you? Then yes, you had to listen. You've always listened to me."

He closed his eyes and shook his head. He looked to the floor as he idly commented, "That's little comfort in knowing that I've lost everything."

The raven haired girl took a breath then calmly replied, "You said you'd rather be damned for who you are… this is who you are not what that little bit of nagging doubt says you are. You wouldn't forgive yourself if you had done nothing."

He growled out, "I can't forgive myself for doing _something_. I just threw away everything and I've hurt her just as much as Beck… probably even more. You're a part of me; you saw the look in her eyes before I left."

A corner of her mouth lifted as she asked, "So you're going to do nothing? You're going to just stay here and listen to the part of you that wants to take the easy way out and go back to the way things were or…"

"Or what?"

"Or are you going to pull yourself together, go back to your real life and put the pieces back together that you think you broke?"

Freddie opened his arms wide and asked incredulously, "Far easier said than done; I've shattered everything. How in the world do I rebuild that trust? How do I face her?"

She tilted her head to the side and cracked a small smile just as sweet as the real Jade wore. "You jumped in front of a truck to save Carly's life and stared down a psychopath to save her again… don't you have the bravery to face Jade?"

"That was easy; Nora was just a nut I could put my foot down on her throat and crush if I wanted to. Jumping in front of a truck? You just have to jump." He sucked in a quick breath then finished, "I don't know where to begin. I can't take seeing the hurt I've caused her and I don't have a rusty spoon to cut my heart out to give her."

The pale construct cupped his cheeks and looked him in the eyes. "I know where you should start and you don't need a rusty spoon. You tell her the truth. Tell her you love her."

He sucked in a shocked breath as his mind would actually suggest such a silly notion then whispered out, "You're kidding. She's not going to believe me. She's just going to think I'm saying it as a way for her to forgive me and take me back."

The raven girl dropped her hands from his face and retorted, "Perhaps, perhaps not. Maybe she will not damn you as she told you before, I don't know, but… I know if you stay here and don't tell her, you _will_ lose her. You really want that? Deep down inside do you want what the other part of you suggested?"

He looked down at the floor and remained silent as thought on her words this time.

She grabbed him by the collar to force him to look at her then demanded, "What do you want? What do you want Freddie Benson?"

He took a slow breath as he looked up to meet her blues eyes then shouted, "I want Jade! I want to be with Jade. I don't care how ridiculous or how… how inconceivable it if for us to be together. I actually like mean girls, Jade likes nice guys and I know we love each other!"

* * *

><p>Freddie sucked in a breath and realized that he was staring at himself in the mirror. He stood up straight and blinked trying to get his bearings. He glanced around that he had woken up and was in his bathroom. He took several calming breaths then mumbled to himself, "I got to get back to L.A."<p>

* * *

><p>Mrs. Benson opened the microwave door and pulled out the bowl of chicken noodle soup and walked over to the table then quickly headed for refrigerator to get a glass of orange juice. The last thing she wanted was her son to catch pneumonia, so she wanted to give her boy a good meal and a solid dose of vitamin C. She finished pouring the glass of orange juice and setting out a place for him at the table when the doorbell rang.<p>

The redheaded brunette blew out an irritated breath and headed for the door. She looked out of the peephole and paused for a moment in deciding whether or not to open the door. She closed her eyes for a moment then opened the door to see a pair of favoring teenage girls (one which looked like Shelby Marx) and male teenager with dreadlocks. She recognized them as Freddie's friends from Los Angeles and cautiously asked, "Yes?"

Tori stated with a nervous tone and a goofy grin, "We're here to see Freddie. Is—"

Trina picked up, "He here?"

The part-time nurse slightly frowned as she asked, "Why?"

André snapped back irritated at the questioning, "Because we're his friends."

Mrs. Benson did not appreciate the young musician tone with her. She began closing the door, but Tori was quicker as she threw her hand up to stop Mrs. Benson from slamming the door in their faces. "We're not leaving until we see Freddie… we're not leaving without him."

Marissa put on an outraged expression at the girl's assertion. "He's not going anywhere with—"

Trina gave a shove to the door and Mrs. Benson was forced to take a step backwards or tumble backwards. The older Vega sister raised a finger and started arguing with the Benson Matriarch and she was giving it right back as not to be intimidated by the teenager.

Tori took the opportunity Trina gave her to slip completely into the apartment with André. The songsmith went one way and he the other as they really didn't know where Freddie could be in the apartment or the location of his old room. Tori was the luckier one of the pair as she had found his bedroom and cautiously walked inside and looked over the bare room except for the made up bed. She fearfully called out, "Freddie?"

A moment later, the bare-chested teenager exited his bathroom with a tired, but surprised expression on his face at seeing the brunette. "Tori?"

Tori blinked for a moment as she had never seen Freddie without a shirt on, not even when they went to the beach several times during the summer and the baser part of her mind liked what she saw. Fortunately the more rational part of her mind reasserted itself and she cleared her throat as she looked up to meet his eyes and asked with a worried tone, "Are you alright?"

He looked down to the floor then back up to her concern eyes. He gave a soft nod as he answered, "I think I might be… what are you doing here?"

She cracked a hesitant smile and shrugged a shoulder, "I'm your friend… where else would I be?"

He cracked a thankful smile and gave her a grateful nod. She walked over and pulled him into a hug. He wrapped his arms around her slender frame. The friends held each other for a few moments before Tori pulled out of his embrace and a step back to look him up and down again. "Are you alright? Physically?"

He gave a brief nod then answered, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"We were worried…" She let out a relieved breath, yet wore a confused expression on her lovely features, "You just took off."

"Thanks, I just…" He let out a tired breath. "It's a story."

She softly bit her bottom lip and gave him a sympathetic expression. "Okay, you can tell us on the way back."

"Back?"

"Home, we've come to see that you're alright and take you back home…" She asked him with a fearful expression, "You want to go home right?"

He surprised the younger Vega sister by pulling her into another hug. She wrapped her arms back around him as she whispered, "Yes, I want to go home."

Tori smiled as she pressed her lips on his bared shoulder. She pulled back a moment later then they heard Trina purr out seductively at the entrance to the bedroom, "Yummy…"

Tori turned to see her sister standing at the door. Her mouth dropped open and looked back and forth between Freddie and her older sister and realized that she was gawking at Freddie's bare chest. She looked over at her sister in outrage and shouted, "Trina!"

"Sorry, sorry, it's just… I mean…" She motioned a hand up and down the tech producer. "Look at him."

Freddie let out a soft laugh, "Trina, I think you're hot too."

Tori put on a worried expression as she commented, "You better not let Jade hear you say that."

He shook his head and waved her off. "I told Jade that months ago."

Both sisters looked to him in surprise from the statement. Trina was the first to ask for confirmation, "Really?"

He let out a relieving laugh as he answered, "I might tell you about it sometime, but if you lovely ladies will excuse me, I would like to get a shower after tonight's events."

The sisters gave nods in response then turned and headed out the door. As soon as the sisters left the bedroom, Trina turned to her younger sister and spoke with a tone that challenged Tori to argue against her, "If Jade dumps him, I am all over him. I've already called sister dibs on him, so don't you dare try for him."

Tori blew out a breath and rolled her eyes as Trina commented, "My God, did you see his chest?"

* * *

><p>Half an hour later, Freddie was sitting at the end of the kitchen table eating his soup as the snacks he ate at the party and on the flight were long gone. The other three teenagers sat on either side of him with Mrs. Benson sitting at the other end of the table. She may have not liked the Los Angeles teenagers just barging into her home, but she could not ignore the fact that they were there for her son or deny them common hospitality.<p>

André shook his head as he relaxed back in his chair. "Dude, what is going on? All we know is that Nora called then you were out the door. Jade wasn't too eager to tell us what happened after you left the part."

Freddie glanced down at the table to gather his thoughts then gave his songwriting friend a tired smile while asking, "Is she alright?"

Tori glanced to André then quietly answered, "We don't know. She took a taxi and left the party about half an hour after you left. Cat, Robbie and Beck and I think maybe Sinjin and his girlfriend with Dusty went to check on her while we came up here."

Freddie nodded along then turned to answer André's original question, "Nora held them hostage again and told me if I didn't come up that she would murder Spencer before any cops could show up, assuming that they would believe me in the first place."

Mrs. Benson grumbled at the end of the table, "I can't believe they let that nut out."

Her son spared a quick glance in her direction.

Tori picked up, "So that's why you took off?"

The former Seattleite shrugged his left shoulder softly and answered, "Pretty much."

"What happened when you got there? I assume you got there?"

Freddie took a quick spoonful of his soup then answered, "I left Nora a bloody mess on the floor and a promise that I would send her to Hell if she ever bothered them or me again. Sam put her mother down and the father was too scared to fight me. Gibby got Spencer out of the basement and whatever contraption they had put him in then I left."

His mother took in a sharp breath.

He looked across the table to meet her eyes and continued, "I mean it; I will kill her as I would with a rabid dog. She and her family had no problem with threatening to murder Spencer." He took a quick sip of his orange juice then commented darkly, "That's assuming Colonel Shay will let her live that long to try again."

They all gave him apprehensive expression, but he gave them each a quick look as he asked, "Come on; is there anyone at this table that doesn't think he's the one that killed the Yerba Chancellor? He gets called away at the last minute from coming home and days later 'rebels' kill the Chancellor. The man is in Special Forces… when it comes down to it he kills people and breaks things for a living and I wouldn't put it passed him for some kind of accident to happen to Nora for her trying to murder his son and tormenting his daughter."

The other occupants at the table remained silent and turned to their healthy snacks Mrs. Benson had prepared for them.

He took the opportunity to turn back to his meal and take a few uninterrupted spoonfuls of his soup.

Tori cleared her throat and hesitantly asked, "So where are they? Carly and the rest I mean."

"I don't know and I don't care where Carly is at. I wasn't going to stay with the people that screwed up my night and probably my relationship with Jade. I told Carly not to go to the hearing, but what did she do? She went anyway and I think she did it on purpose to get me there tonight."

Trina asked the obvious question with an expression that any answer given to her would be stupid, "Why? Why tonight?"

Tori sucked in a breath as the reason mentally slapped her and she looked to Freddie with a look of dread. She whispered out, "Could she have known about tonight?"

Freddie's brow furled as his mind put the same puzzle together as Tori. He shook his head disregarding the idea, "No, she couldn't have known. You were the only one that knew."

André spoke up, "But Carly already knew about tonight. We all knew; I'm the one that told you we were going to have a party at Kenan's. You told us that you told her."

The younger Vega sister answered, "No, not that."

The songwriter asked with evident confusion, "Then what?"

The Seattle native took a deep breath then admitted, "I was going to tell Jade that I love her after our New Year's midnight kiss. It would have been the first time I said those words with the meaning you're thinking."

André's eyes opened up while Trina squeaked in excitement from the planned romantic gesture even if a bit of her felt a little jealous that no one was going to do that for her.

Mrs. Benson took a sharp breath and stared at her son.

He took several slow breaths then asked Tori, "Do you think she'll forgive me?"

Trina began to speak, but Tori put a hand over her mouth. She did not want her older sister to say something that could inadvertently sabotage him and Jade staying together.

Freddie raised an eyebrow at seeing the reaction and André looked just as confused.

Tori glared at her sister to make it clear that she was not to speak then answered with a supportive tone, "I think she understands the situation better than any of us and you'll be fine. You might be in the dog house for a little while for just going, but…"

Trina quickly spoke up, "You can always stay at our place."

Tori gave her sister a disapproving look then closed her eyes and shook her head.

Freddie cracked a smile then looked over to his mother and figuratively saw the gears starting to turn in her head. He gave her a determined stare. "Don't even think about it mother. Don't… this is not the night to test me."

Mrs. Benson gave him a guarded expression.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport  
>SeaTac, WA<br>5:43 AM, Sunday, January 1, 2012

Freddie blew out a breath as he relaxed in his seat at the terminal while casually swinging his book bag in front of him. Tori was sitting next to him with her small carryon bag sitting at her feet. André looked uncomfortable as he continued to try to get comfortable in his one seat further down from Tori's seat, but Trina had fallen asleep on his shoulder and snoring quite loudly. It wasn't surprising that she had fallen asleep since all of them had been awake for around twenty hours give or take a few hours depending on when each woke up the previous morning.

Freddie looked out into the mostly cleared lobby as he softly commented to the brunette next to him, "Thanks… thanks for coming and getting me."

Tori smiled as she rested her head on his shoulder. She whispered out with a tired voice as her own eyelids were getting heavy, "That's what friends are for… we're there for one another."

He smiled as he commented idly, "You jumped on a plane and flew more than a thousand miles for me. That's a lot to do for a friend."

The brunette softly laughed, "We just drew the short straws on who would come and get you and those that would go to Jade."

He snorted out his own laugh, but it soon faded as he realized something or more accurately a person whose motivations he was quite uncertain wasn't here but most likely with Jade. However, he remained silent on commenting on that fact.

She lifted her head up and rested her chin on his shoulder to comment, "When Beck and Jade broke up we… left her alone. We let her walk away when they broke up and none of us checked on her before we left for Yerba… we just abandoned her while we acted like everything was normal with Beck around. Cat cared, but was lost on what to do, so she was paralyzed to do anything. I can't speak for the rest, but I… I didn't know how to comfort Jade in any meaningful way that she would have accepted. We're her friends and she deserved better then what we didn't do last time."

"She's my girlfriend and she deserved better than what I did."

"It's going to be okay you know. You're going to tell her what you wanted to tell her hours ago and it's all going to work out."

Freddie took a breath and looked to the floor as he seriously wondered to that hope because he still had his doubts. "I don't have enough faith left to necessarily believe that, but I'm still going to try."

A sweet voice spoke up in front of him as a pair of women's shoes stepped into his field of vision, "Even a mustard seed worth of faith will get you far."

Freddie looked up at hearing the familiar voice to see the ticket counter attendant and his eyes were immediately drawn to the nametag: Anna. He looked up to see the pale woman's face and eye catching red hair tied up in a bun. He whispered out in disbelief, "Anna?"

She smiled at him then looked to the other teenagers. "Yes, I'm Anna from the ticket counter and I'm here to make sure you all board the plane safely because you are all minors."

Trina was awake enough to hear the woman and immediately sat up from André's shoulder, but mumbled out still trying to fully wake up, "Finally! We can get out of here, but I'm not a minor, they are."

Anna gave Trina a brief nod as the older Vega sister stood up and grabbed her bag sitting at her feet.

As Freddie looked on with surprise at seeing the redhead, Tori gently pulled on his left arm to get him on his feet and spoke up, "I'm sorry for my sister; we're just eager to get our friend home." She spared a glanced at the surprised tech producer then smiled to the redhead to finish, "He missed New Years with his girlfriend."

Anna slightly frowned as she replied with a sympathetic tone, "I'm sorry to hear that. I know that must have been hard to miss out ringing in the New Year with the one you love."

Tori put on an embarrassing smile and glanced to Freddie.

Freddie softly answered as he met the redhead's eyes, "Yeah… well… I made my own decision to be here…" He smiled and finished confidently, "And I made my decision to go _home_."

Anna gave him a grin in return then motioned to her right. "Then let's get you all home. Let me go ahead and escort you onto the plane. I have a feeling that she'll be happy to see you."

The brown eyed teenager gave her a disbelieving look, but she returned with a confident smile. He felt a sudden surge of peace that things may turn out alright.

Trina took off passed her mumbling, "Great. I just want to go home and crash in my bed." André smirked as he shook his head and grabbed his book bag from his feet and threw it over his shoulder then ran to catch up with the eager teenager.

Tori gave the 'attendant' an apologetic smile. "Sisters?"

Anna softly laughed as she motioned for the pair to walk with her, "I have _a lot_ of siblings; I understand the feeling."

As she walked with the pair to catch up with Trina and André, Anna idly started softly singing, "There is no upper hand, I'm giving you mine. It doesn't have to end up wasting your time. There's things that I could say, but here in my own way, I want to let you know that it's all okay…" She spared Freddie a glance as she repeated the last line again, "I want to let you know that it's all okay…"

Freddie looked to the redhead with a surprised expression while Tori looked on curiously on how the ticket counter attendant knew of André's song. Neither of the teenagers asked her about the song as she escorted them through security without either of them realizing the display screens of the computers were automatically displaying that they were clear without having to take any shows off or any other hassle.

A few minutes later, the teenagers were on the plane and taking their seats on the right row of the plane with André and Trina sitting together with Freddie and Tori sitting together in front of them after everyone put away their carryon luggage.

Once everyone was set in their seats, Anna leaned against the back of the seats in front of Freddie and Tori and smiled to the weary teenager. She whispered, "You'll have a safe flight."

Tori furled her brow as she asked curiously, "Don't you mean 'Have a safe flight'?"

The fair skinned woman glanced to the other teenager and softly laughed out, "No."

The brunette put on a confused smile and raised her eyebrows then slowly whispered out, "Okay…"

Freddie gave her a grateful smile as he whispered back, "Thanks Anna."

She gave him a nod then turned to head down the aisle and off the plane.

Tori poked Freddie in the side and joked, "Kind of distracted by the attendant?"

Freddie cleared his throat then awkwardly answered, "Her hair reminded me of Cat."

Tori snorted out a laugh, "I noticed that too. I guess she likes red velvet cupcakes too?"

"Yeah," he answered with a casual nod as he looked out of the passenger window.

"Freddie?"

He turned his head to look back at the brunette. "Yes?"

The brunette shook her head and softly commented, "Let's not tell Jade that I barged into your room and saw you without a shirt on… then hugged you."

Freddie gave her a conspiratorial smile and whispered, "Okay."

The pair shared a laugh as they relaxed in their respective seats waiting for takeoff.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: The next one is obviously the big one that you've been waiting for over the last seven months. It's been a blast. I hope to get it out sometime this weekend, but not necessarily on Friday. Don't be shy with the reviews. If you think it was great, let me know; if you think it was lousy, let me know. Constructive criticism is always welcome and appreciated. Take care.<p>

Oh, and Special Guest Star Julie McNiven as Anna


	34. Chapter 34: I'm Coming Home

Author's Note: Hello everyone. I thought it would take me until Saturday to get this chapter done, but with a burst of inspiration, some extra time and some good old fashion writing pressure in wanting to get this chapter out today as a way to celebrate the lovely and talented Elizabeth 'Liz' Gillies' 19th Birthday today, I got it out.

PD31: Butterfly Effect is in full swing with Trina in that someone has actively cared about her through the last several months and she is returning the sentiment. Freddie going back to Bushwell is more out of he has no place else to go for the moment.

ArtisticAngel6: Thanks and you got your wish.

Twilight Warrior 627: I'm glad that I could draw you into the story and cause an emotional response.

Guest: Thanks and here is the update.

Crovus: Your wait is over.

Meeeee Again D: I'm glad you liked the chapter. It was fun to use Anna in a subtle manner to reassure Freddie that didn't think jolted the reader out of the story.

Agent-M-0167: Yes, I still planning, outlining and writing a third story. I just decided to finish the cliffhanger in this story after reader input and thoughtful consideration of how I wanted this story to stand on its own without the necessity of another story. I'm now looking at a fall release for 'We Love Each Other'.

One last thing, Special Guest Appearance by Jennifer Connelly as Ruby Lynn West and I hope you all enjoy this chapter and Happy Birthday once again to Elizabeth 'Liz' Gillies and actually Jade West.

* * *

><p>Chapter 34<p>

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Sunday, January 1, 2012

Mrs. West sat on the couch with her arm wrapped around her raised right leg being supported with her foot on the cushion and holding her coffee in her other hand as she watched the big flat-screen television currently on Fox News. Cat was lying further down on the couch snuggling with a blanket with Dusty gently brushing her hair as she slept and watched the news with the West Matriarch. She thought about saying something to the Southern teenager, but Cat was apparently accepting of the attention with the occasional smile playing on her lips as she slept. Jade and Ava were in the kitchen finishing up breakfast Ruby had prepared for the teenagers earlier and was grateful that her daughter was at least eating and some of the vitriol anger had subsided over the last eight hours or so.

The blonde Fox News anchor smiled to the camera and began her broadcast, "I'm Jamie Colby and we return to our developing story: the kidnapping and hostage taking of the cast and crew of the popular teen web-show, iCarly. Let me recap what we know so far: Sometime during yesterday afternoon, the iCarly stars were at a parole hearing for Nora Dershlit. She was the young girl that had been arrested for aggravated kidnapping of the iCarly cast last summer and was in a juvenile detention facility. Miss Dershlit was released on grounds of mercy and forgiveness by the stars; however afterwards, the iCarly crew was lured back to the Dershlit home where she, her mother and father held them hostage for several hours and committing multiple assaults on the star's older brother Spencer Shay during that time."

"There are conflicting reports that a former member of the web production, Freddie Benson, arrived and near miraculously rescued the group. Unfortunately, we have not been able to confirm this as the police are not releasing those details and the iCarly questions were not available for comment. We also have not been able to contact Mister Benson. We can confirm that once police arrived that Nora Dershlit was taken to the hospital along with her mother who was found unconscious. Nora Dershlit was reported to have a broken nose and some form of neck or throat injury."

Dusty commented dryly, "Looks like Freddie took care of business."

The raven haired mistress of the home ignored the comment as she remained focused on the television.

"We are also able to confirm that Spencer Shay was taken to the hospital as well for observation."

Ruby bowed her head slightly and covered her forehead with her left hand. "Oh my God," she mumbled under her breath.

"They said he's only there for observation," Jade spoke up from behind the couch. She finished with a quiet voice, "He'll be okay."

Mrs. West turned to be surprised with seeing a sympathetic expression on her daughter's face. She gave her a nod then looked back to the television with Jade joining her on focusing on the screen.

Dusty remained silent looking back and forth between the mother and daughter with Jade being sympathetic at least to the eccentric artist despite the outright hatred Jade had for Carly that she had conveyed to him about eight hours ago. He guessed that her anger hadn't overridden her respect for the ties between her mother and the Shay parents and their oldest child.

The blonde news anchor continued, "We expect that the entire Dershilt family will be charged with multiple crimes including kidnapping and attempted murder. We are told that the FBI is involved in the investigation and that there is a possibility of federal charges."

Ruby mumbled, "Steven might just kill them all."

No one voiced their opinion of her statement, but the doorbell ringing stopped all their individual trains of thought. Mrs. West turned her head toward the foyer with a look of surprise, Dusty with a look of concern, Cat still peacefully sleeping and Jade with an apprehensive expression. The raven beauty stood up from the couch and headed for the door as Dusty got up from his seat and followed her as he still wore his look of concern, but sparing a moment to press his lips to the side of Cat's forehead. Cat groggily woke up from the shift in the weight of the couch with Dusty standing up.

Jade hung back as she walked around the couch to stand in the middle of the living room and look towards the foyer.

* * *

><p>It was approaching ten in the morning, but with the cloud cover from the previous night's storms over the west coast, there was still a dark overcast and the occasional drizzle of rain while Freddie took a deep breath and he stood at the foot of the front porch, nervously looking at the front door. Tori was standing by his side with André and Trina behind them. The tech producer took a deep breath then blew it out so he could mumble out, "It's just like jumping in front of a taco truck… easy." He saw from the corner of his eye Tori giving him a supportive smile as the lovely teenager heard his words then she gave his right hand a soft squeeze.<p>

His hand slipped away from her hand as he took the few steps up to stand at the door then pressed the doorbell button. He had to wait a few seconds for the door open to see a surprised, but relieved looking Mrs. West.

The brown eyed teenager cleared his throat and greeted with a strain tone to the West Matriarch, "Hi Mrs. West."

She covered her mouth for a moment then leaned forward to pull him into a hug.

He let out a surprised breath then cautiously returned the hug.

She held him for a few seconds then pulled back, resting her hands on his shoulders and gave him a concern expression. "Are you alright?"

He opened his mouth to speak, but stopped before a sound could leave his throat. He closed his mouth then started again, "I don't know yet. It all depends on how Jade is."

Ruby softly patted him on the right shoulder and gave an understanding nod of her head. She turned and guided him inside the house.

He cautiously stepped inside with Mrs. West's arm around his shoulders and the first person he saw a few feet further inside foyer was a relieved looking Dusty blowing out a breath through his lips.

Freddie cleared his throat as he suddenly felt like he was back in TheSlap computer room meeting the web-master for the first time. At first, Freddie looked to him with an even expression, but without bothering with a second thought about why the teenager was there then finally cracked a soft smile and asked, "Expecting someone else?"

Dusty let a comfortable smirk form on his face as he answered, "Pretty boy actually, but I'm glad to see it's you coming through that door instead of him."

Mrs. West took a step back away from Freddie and let her hand drop away from his shoulders to make it look as if she was giving them some privacy, but was curious about what they were going to say.

Freddie felt strange that the other teenager would openly voice such a concern the he himself held before leaving Seattle. He didn't want to assume the worst about the possible motivations of Beck, but his faith in people he trusted or willing to trust had broken last night. _Was that something he had also lost last night?_ He cautiously asked, "Has he…"

"He came with the rest of us, but Mrs. West didn't want any of the males inside."

Right or wrong, he felt a sense of relief that Beck hadn't seen Jade while he was in Washington State; however he thought on the second part of Dusty's statement and raised an eyebrow. "Then how did you get in?"

Dusty grinned and softly chuckled, "I'd like to claim Southern charm, but it was just pigheadedness on my part that I was going to wait outside until morning and Cohen had to use the bathroom."

Freddie felt a relieving laugh come from the center of his chest and let it out. He blew out another breath and calmly asked, "So you decided to stay?"

"Of course I stayed… Honor wou—"

"Would have accepted no less," Freddie finished for him with nod of his head and a laugh.

Dusty chuckled at the playful mocking then let out a breath to bring a seriousness back to his voice, "And you trusted me to watch out for her before… you see and hope for the best in people…" Dusty shook his head sadly as a frowned slipped on his face before continuing, "… but I don't… I don't trust pretty boy. Someone, _not one of his friends_, has to be here to make sure there's an opposing voice for whatever he would say."

Freddie took a deep breath at Dusty openly voicing a part of him that was concerned about Beck being here to 'support' Jade. However he didn't get to comment as Dusty glanced over him up and down and casually asked, "You got back here pretty quick and apparently in one piece."

The brown eyed teenager mentally brushed the thought away and shrugged a shoulder. "Yeah, I had surprise on my side, some help from my friends and… a little help from an angel to get us home hassle free…" He softly laughed out the last, "If you would believe that?"

Dusty joined him in laughter and looked down at the wooden floor as he shook his head then commented with a playful smile, "I guess mom got my prayer."

Freddie's smile slipped off of his face as two memories quickly flashed through his mind: one from Dusty, _'My mother is among the angels'_ and Anna's words from Christmas, _'I can see why my Dustin would like her… other than him taking after his father in liking redheads'._ The tech producer shook his head and disregarded the silly idea coming out of an overstressed and sleep deprived mind. What a mind will come up with working on only two to three hours of sleep over the last twenty four hours. The next thing he knew he could start imagining a dancing lobster if he didn't get some real sleep soon. If it wasn't for his sheer will to see Jade, he wouldn't have even been able to get out of his seat on the airplane.

"Are you okay though?" Dusty asked him pulling him back to reality.

He looked to Jade giving him a guarded look, but answered TheSlap's webmaster, "Other than being exhausted? I'm about to find out."

He took a step forward, but Dusty gently grabbed him by the left bicep. The Southern teenager looked forward and avoided looking Freddie as he whispered out in a starkly deeper tone than one of a few moments ago, "If you ever rush head long into a fight and there is a chance to call me to back you up and you don't… I'm going to kick your ass."

Freddie blinked in surprise from the statement, but after a moment or two gave him an acknowledging nod.

"One other thing."

"Yes?"

Dusty turned his head to meet the tech producer's eyes. "I know."

Freddie slightly frowned. "What?"

He answered with an almost regretful tone, "Everything."

Freddie slightly frowned as the look in Dusty's eyes told him exactly what he meant. He gave him an acknowledging nod of his words and to let him know to drop his hand which Dusty immediately complied. The tech producer started again for Jade, but he was immediately jumped by a smiling Cat wrapping her arms around his waist and pulling him tightly against her.

"Oh my God Freddie! We were so worried."

He softly rubbed her back as he looked over her shoulder to see Jade giving him a guarded expression, yet Freddie could see the faintest of hints of a smile that he didn't know what to make of. "Thanks Cat."

She pulled away, but still hung on to him while looking up at him with a smile.

"It's good to see you little red," he commented softly then pulled away to turn his attention to Jade.

The redhead softly laughed and let him pass.

He took a deep breath and took a step forward to stand in the living room with her. He noticed that she was wearing his blue shirt, the one he wore the first day of the workshop, the one that she picked out the day that they decided to try to be a couple… the one he wore the night of the school lock-in and Sam kissed him. The shirt has a history and she always loved it. He had debated whether to just give it to her, but apparently Jade was happy with the arrangement right now. The other thing he noticed was that she was casually running her finger underneath the bracelet Ian had given her for Christmas. He gathered his courage and began, "Hey."

She closed the distance in the blink of an eye and pulled him into a hug.

He blinked from the sudden and unexpected contact. He cautiously raised his arms as he did when Mrs. West hugged him and wrapped his arms around to the small of her back.

The others looked on in shock as that wasn't the reaction that most of them were expecting, but some were pleasantly surprised that it didn't start off as a screaming match as others were concerned that it didn't start off as one.

The dark brunette whispered into his ear, "Are you okay?"

Freddie started frantically blinking, "Ah…"

She pulled back so that she could look at him the eyes and repeated with a stern voice, "Are you okay?"

"I'm not sure… I wasn't expecting a hug… not after last night."

She cracked a reassuring smile that threw him off further.

Mrs. West spoke up, "I think we should give them privacy—"

The pale dark brunette spoke up, "No need." Jade pulled completely out of Freddie's embrace and took him by a hand. She turned and pulled him along to head for the kitchen. The rest looked on as she then pulled him up the stairs.

Freddie went along for the ride so to speak as she led him to down the hallway. She pulled him along into his room and once they were inside she shut the door behind her.

A large part of him didn't expect to ever step foot in his room again yet being here gave him a brief moment of relief. However one thing stood out to him: his made up bed was a mess as if someone had slept in last night. He looked back at Jade and swallowed in fear as he thought for a moment she got him alone so that she could kill him in private (figuratively of course) as he thought he deserved it. He brushed that concern aside and began, "Jade—"

She lifted a finger and gave him a stern expression as she interrupted, "Not one more word until I get to say what I was denied to say at midnight. I am not going to be cheated out a second time to say what I need to say and nothing short of God is going to stop me and even then He'd have a fight on His hands."

Freddie's brow furled at the last of the comment, but remained silent.

The pale actress blew out a breath then began, "We're almost ten hours late, but I'm going to tell you what I was planning to tell you after our New Year's kiss." She looked down for a moment and covered her mouth with the side of her hand. She was apparently gathering her nerve or the words to speak from Freddie's point of view. She looked up then finished with a shaky voice, "I was going to tell you that… that I love you. I mean I can say those words to you _in that way_. I still mean it as I did when I was originally going to say those words. I love you."

Freddie's mouth dropped open as mind went completely blank looking at the dark haired singer. His mouth went up and down only due to sporadic signals from his brain as all coherent thought left his mind and anything he was planning to say went along with it. Instinct took over and he whispered out, "Ah… that wasn't what I was expecting."

She surprisingly cracked devious smile. "Were you expecting that I was going to tear your head off for leaving instead of a confession of love for you?"

He nodded and dropped his mouth open with confusion playing on his face, "Yeah or at least taking a baseball bat to my Charger… which I think you would totally be justified in doing… you did take a golf club to a car one time. I think that's a reasonable assumption."

She shook her head then grinned at him which actually frightened him somewhat than reassured him. "I'm not mad at you for taking off… a little annoyed that you just took off without a few more words, but that was just you being a little… rushing in where angels fear to tread, not you trying to be willfully hurtful towards me."

Freddie raised an eyebrow, obviously confused by the turn of events that he was not expecting.

She bit her bottom lip for a moment at seeing his expression then started laughing at the completely bewildered expression on his face. She started laughing so loud and forcefully that she wrapped her arms over her abdomen.

He frowned as he felt a twinge of embarrassment.

She let her laughter die off then whispered, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to laugh." She took a step forward and placed a hand over his heart. She let out a slow breath and stared at her hand. "You think with your heart more than with your head. You do what you feel is right even if I think it's stupid and because of it you do stupid stuff at times." She looked up to meet his eyes and blew out a soft breath then continued, "Remember after you moved in and during those weeks before school began we all swapped stories about things that happened in our lives?"

He fearfully nodded and whispered out, "Yeah?"

She dropped her hand from his chest as she continued, "Remember the story you told me about one of Carly's old friends… I can't remember her name, the redhead?"

Freddie bit his tongue and growled at the mentioning of the web-star's name and it was Jade's turn to be surprised. He cleared his throat as to not sound like some growling animal as he answered, "Missy?"

She snapped her fingers of her right hand and pointed at him as she answered, "Yeah that's her. Anyway, you said you gave up your winning cruise to get rid of her so that Sam wouldn't lose Carly as a friend."

"Yes?" he answered slowly in not knowing where she was going with her train of thought.

She bowed her head slightly, but kept her eyes focused on him. She smirked and commented with a confident tone, "_That was stupid_. You could have gotten rid of Sam for good and never had to deal with her again and a cruise out of the deal and all you had to do was _nothing_. What do you do? Save Sam or would have if Missy didn't take a level in stupidity and gloated to Sam about what she did until after she had won." She shook her head and mentally mocked the other girl's stupidity. "I think it was stupid that you help your enemy, but that's you. Your sense of right and wrong and wanting to help is what makes up you. That's just one example out of many."

The dark brunette let out a soft chuckle then continued, "No PDA between us when we were out in public for weeks when school started because you didn't want to rub it in Beck's face. No other guy would have cared, but you didn't want to hurt him and that's just another example. You tried to spare his feelings, but didn't let me in on the secret. Heart over head again." She shook her head, "It's just like Robbie trying to not waste the ice cream from our Kesha hunt and giving it to little kids in the park without thinking what would happen of some strange boy riding up with free ice cream; more heart than brains… gotta love big mamas…"

Freddie looked down at the floor embarrassed at her points about not necessarily thinking through with his attempts to help.

She gave him a smile as she cupped his cheeks. "I didn't mean to embarrass you. I'm saying that I accepted that about you a long time ago, just like you've accepted things about me… like still trying to wrap my head around you and Tori being nice to people that are mean to you or I really can be a real monster before my morning coffee."

Freddie attempted to clear his throat several times then was finally able to get out, "Adorable monster for the record, but… so you ah… you don't think I chose Carly over you?"

She dropped her hands from his cheeks and gave him a curious expression. "You think I would?"

He laughed out nervously, "It's logical thing to consider. It wasn't her, but… I got the call of Carly being in trouble and I went running."

Jade gave him an even expression and a nod of her head. "You could look at it that way or… you could remember what you told Nora."

"What was that?"

"You damned her… you didn't want to go, but… if you hadn't gone… you wouldn't have been Freddie anymore… you wouldn't have been my Freddie anymore and things could have turned out really bad at Nora's." She reached up and cupped his cheeks again to look him straight in the eyes. "When we found each other that day at the workshop, you were still you… a little angry, but still you. After everything with Carly and Sam at the hotel and moving to L.A., a part of you was going to become something different and you were going to lose a part of yourself. That's why I wanted you to talk to Lane to make sure you wouldn't lose yourself… make sure they didn't take anything else from you. Remember?"

Freddie's shoulders slumped as he stared into her compassionate eyes, but he noticed something else. He softly whispered out, "I remember, but… if you're not mad at me then… why have you've been crying?"

She dropped her hands away from his face and tilted her head slightly down to avoid his eyes.

He tilted his head to the side and downward to try to see her eyes. "Jade? Your eyes are still blood shot and you have a little puffiness under them."

She lifted her hand to allow her fingertips to brush just under her eyes and feel a little bit of swollenness.

"Jade?"

The pale girl looked up to see meet his gaze then softly began, "Yes I did get upset, but not because of you… I'm upset because Carly purposely screwed up my plans. This isn't like Tori screwing up my performance for her stupid prom or beating me out of Steamboat Suzy or any of the other things she does to drive me crazy. This is an entirely different level. This is her interfering with me telling the boy _I love_ that I love him. That's a line that you don't cross. I'm wazzed off at her… no, that's not accurate enough. I am beyond furious with her. I didn't know that the level of anger I'm feeling towards her even existed."

"Well I'm not exactly thrilled with the girl either."

She raised her left eyebrow.

"I told her to go straight to Hell and take Sam along with her."

Jade sucked in a sharp breath.

He whispered out in a hollowed tone, "I guess I may have lost a piece of me."

She closed her eyes. She may have hated the girl, but she didn't want Freddie to hate when that wasn't a part of him. _Damn you Carly Shay; you will not take any of his soul. I swear on _your_ mother's grave that you can't have that._

Freddie spoke up with a hopeful tone, "Okay, can we get back to the part where you said you loved me? That's… that's…"

"What?" she looked up in surprise at him.

He softly laughed out, "You said you love me?"

She smiled as her hate was flushed away at least temporarily to be replaced with her feelings towards him. "Yes and I can say it that way."

He looked down and shook his head with a disbelieving expression. He looked up and cautiously began, "Would… would you believe me if I told you that was what I was going to tell you at midnight? That's why I thought it was going to be a special night for us. That's why I damned Nora and didn't want to go. That I was being taken from you before I could say those words."

Jade shook her head sadly as she whispered, "Freddie, don't. I didn't tell you this to try to hold on to you or guilt trip you into saying it after last nigh—"

Freddie mouth dropped opened and eyes nearly bugged out in a comedic fashion as he raised a finger to eagerly interrupt, "OH! I have a witness… sort of, kind of…" He raised his second finger to hold up a peace since and corrected, "Two actually."

Jade's lips pursed and her brow furled then asked, "What?"

"I told Tori what I was planning to do when everyone went to get food during our last poker game and… I told Ian that I love you when you went to the restroom at Freezie Queen when we took him to see the Chipmunks' movie."

She slightly frowned and crossed her wrist in front of her and subconsciously played with her brown bracelet at the mention of Ian's name. She eyed him for a few moments to try to determine whether he was being serious then decided to just come out and ask him, "You're serious?"

He eagerly nodded his head. "Yes. I realized that I loved you when I was arguing with your alternate self in that world Anna dropped me off in and I realized that I needed to share the good news with someone and how I was going to tell you and that someone was my best friend."

The pale dark brunette looked onto him in surprise this time as she contemplated her words. There were plenty of things that she could have said, but a nagging doubt that she thought she had expunged long ago, "So Tori is your best friend?"

He softly chuckled as he playfully rolled his eyes. "Well after you of course. Isn't that a given since you're my girlfriend?"

The pale actress smirked at his addendum. "Not always."

He leaned forward close enough for their respective noses to almost touch and whispered, "Well it is for me." He continued with a tired tone, "I know you have every right to doubt me because it's so convenient to say, but it's the truth. Even before last night, I had come to peace with Carly being my first love and that I can move on from that and that you are the one that I want to move on with."

He placed his hands softly on her hips and she instinctively rested her hands on the side of his shoulders. "This isn't how I planned it and it isn't the meaningful gesture I wanted as the clock striking midnight and starting the New Year with the girl that I love in my arms, but… I told you that I would find the words one day to tell you how I feel about you Jadelyn West and I found them: I love you."

Jade sucked in a breath as she saw the look in his eyes. He still had the same truthful look that she had always seen since the day he approached her sitting in the Black Box Theater. She cupped his cheeks for a third time and pulled him into the kiss they were denied hours ago not by Fate, but Free Will and Free Will had brought them back together.

They traded a slow kiss at first then a deeper one then frantic shorter ones as her arms wrapped around the back of his neck while his hands slipped to the small of his back. The kept up the kissing for a surprisingly short time then rested their foreheads against one another.

Freddie was the first to speak, "I love you Jade West."

The faintest of smiles formed on her lips as she whispered in reply, "I love you Freddie Benson."

They stood there as the minutes ticked away, just holding on to one another and feeling safe, loved and at peace in each others arms after all the pain, anger and hatred that they had experienced over the last twelve hours.

Jade finally looked up at him and gave him a wicked smirk and glint in her eyes. He gave her a curious expression as he remembered that look she was giving him was the same one from the time from when Carly had found them at his hotel and Jade had slammed the door in her face then dragged him back to his bedroom where they made love for a second time. His suspicions were confirmed when she started unbuttoning his shirt with one hand and her own shirt with the other hand.

"Jade?"

She laughed out softly with a seductive tone, "We just confessed our love to one another and I want to make love with my boyfriend to celebrate and I know you can do that know knowing that you love me."

He laughed out nervously, "But Jade… everyone's downstairs and I have about three hours of sleep at most in the last twenty four hours, so I'm not exactly going to be at peak perfo—"

She cut him off with pulling him tight against her and crashed her lips with his lips. All resistance instantly crumbled for Freddie in regards to propriety of them making love now with everyone downstairs waiting to see if they had survived as a couple.

Jade pulled away and walked back to the bedroom door. She opened it enough to peak her head out and shouted, "Everyone go home; we're fine! We'll see you later!"

The pale singer quickly pulled her head back inside the room and closed the door. She turned back to Freddie, but tilted her head back and sighed loudly as she forgot something. She went back to the door and opened it again to shout out, "Thanks for being there for us! Now go home!" She quickly shut the door then locked it behind her. She rested her hands behind her back as she leaned her upper back against the door while smiling deviously at her loving boyfriend.

She pushed off the door and nearly ran to him and pulled him into her embrace to start kissing him again. She started walking forward and he allowed her to walk him backwards until the back of his knees hit the edge of his bed. He laughed as quickly sat and laid back in his bed as he pulled the eager dark brunette down with him with barely a pause in their kissing.

The pale actress pulled her lips away from his lips and rested her head on his forehead. She smiled warmly at him as their eyes stared into one another. She whispered out in the softest of tones, "We made it, didn't we?"

He gave her a chase kiss on the lips then replied, "Yes we did."

They both laughed together for a second or so then crashed their lips together that would lead to many more over the next few hours.

* * *

><p>Dusty glanced over to the rest still in the living room after hearing Jade shout down to them and commented, "You know what? I'm going to take her at her word and count this as a happy ending." He raised a hand and asked, "Who's with me?"<p>

Ava raised her hand in agreement and showing that she was still wearing the Southern teen's jacket. "I'm with you."

Cat spoke up with a surprisingly coherent statement, "They're not going to…"

Her ex-boyfriend laughed out, "Sweetie, I think that's exactly what they are about to do and they want some privacy."

The other looked to one another with a mixture of awkwardness and embarrassment, but still an underlining sense of happiness that the couple was going to be okay and that they were able to help them each in their own way.

Mrs. West clapped her hands and spoke in a raised tone to get everyone's attention, "Okay! Go home if you have transportation and I'll give rides to the rest. I'm going to get dressed while the rest of you wait out on the front porch."

Tori spoke up with an awkward expression and motioned between herself, her sister and André, "Yes ma'am. We're going to need a ride. We took a taxi from the airport."

The pale mother gave a nod then looked to the others. Dusty immediately volunteered, "I'll take Cat and Cohen home." He looked to the girls and smirked as he commented, "Not to knock Van Cleef's ride, but if you're going to ride, you have to ride in some style."

Cat giggled while Ava shook her head with a smirk.

The girls quickly gathered their things then headed out the front door with Dusty behind them. He could be heard by the rest as he exited with the brunette and red velvet haired girl, "I'm going to want my jacket back at some point."

Trina and André quickly followed behind the other teenagers as happy as they could be for their friends, it was a little weird in knowing that they could be seriously intimate at the moment with each other just upstairs.

Tori was a few steps behind them when Mrs. West called out to her, "Vega?"

The brunette turned to look at the pale woman and respectfully answered, "Yes ma'am."

"I know you and my daughter don't get along the best, but… thanks for being there for them… for her."

Tori let a soft smile form on her face as she answered, "They're my friends."

She gave her a partial smile and replied, "I'll see you in a few minutes." The pale beauty of a woman turned and started her way through the living room to head for the master bedroom.

Tori turned and headed out the front door. She shut it behind her with a smile on her face as she looked up and saw that the clouds were finally clearing and allowed a few of the suns rays through to shine down onto the city. She let out a soft laugh from the happiness for her friend and sorta friend after such a dark night turning into a beautiful day. Her eyes subconsciously looked to André speaking to her sister at the foot of the porch as she hoped one day she would find love in that way.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Wow, what a conclusion. I hope you liked it. I don't think many people would expect Jade to react in that manner, but she is a smart girl and a major theme carried through both stories is her acceptance of Freddie's character traits (similar to Tori's) even if she has a hard time comprehending them. Oh, and if you're wondering how the kidnapping could be on say, Fox News, the canon episode said that was how Colonel Shay found out about what happened to his children, so it must have been on a major news outlet in the episode since he's out of the country. Spencer didn't even have the decency to even shoot off an e-mail to his father in letting him know what happened.<p>

I still have an epilogue I'm going to post along with a bookend comedic chapter that will lead into the next story, 'We Love Each Other'. I have a lot of thanks to give to all that have supported me throughout this work and will give the shout outs. See you next week!


	35. Chapter 35: Epilogue

Author's Note: Hey everyone. Here is the epilogue to my labor of love story. I can't thank you all enough for reading and reviewing this story. I also can't tell you how your reviews and feedback have been helpful in the writing of this story. They do matter.

Twilight Warrior 627: I'm glad you loved it and that I could surprise you with an early posting. Elizabeth's birthday was a great motivation to get it done early.

ArtisticAngel6: I'm glad you understood Jade's reaction. I think it was quite in character with the way she has developed over the last six months their time.

BushwellFanNYC: I'm glad you liked Jade's reaction as well and thanks for all the support.

Agent-M-0167: I'm glad you and the others have seen the change in Jade's character. Unlike Dan, I thought I could use the breakup (which I predicted for identical reasons 8 months before 'The Worst Couple' and still waiting for my royality check) to develop Jade's character in which he has failed to do since February of this year.

There is something that PD31 pointed out to me today that I messed up in a previous chapter. When Beck is going home after leaving the Wests' home, Robbie is suppose to be in Sinjin's car not in Beck's car. He's not supposed to be with Beck and hear him call of Carly. That was my goof up and I wanted to clear that up for future reference.

Now on with the final chapter.

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><p>Chapter 35: Epilogue<p>

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Monday, January 2, 2012

Jade pulled her bag tighter on and over her rolled up sleeved red and black flannel pattern shirt covered right shoulder. She wore the unbuttoned shirt over her white athletic tank top and the hem blew freely in the soft breeze and against her dark blue jean covered thighs as she walked out of the opened garage and approached from behind the polished black Charger sitting in the driveway of the Wests' home.

She walked to the passenger side of the car and looked over the black beauty as the rays of the morning sun shined off the restored and polished vehicle. Her fingertips grazed across the side of the door as she thought on the fact that the car spent less than a week in the shop to come back whole after years of neglect and mistreatment. She wore a regretful smile as she wished it was as easy to put her boyfriend back together as it was the muscle car.

Freddie was mostly himself now after months of soul searching and coming home yesterday, but she couldn't shake the feeling that Carly's betrayal (and she didn't doubt for one moment that was exactly the girl's intention) had damaged a part him on a fundamental level where once a little piece of his heart would always love Carly as his first love had now turned into a hateful pit of regret and disgust and that she had no clue how to fix. Freddie's love turning to hatred of Carly further disturbed her even as she hated the Seattle girl because it reminded her how easily even the truest of loves could turn into bitter hatred. However much that potential pitfall could befall on them as it did her parents she was not paralyzed by fear or hopelessness of such a possibility because they had shown that Fate could not dictate their lives. Ironically the strength of her friendship with Beck after their breakup also defied that those feelings were inevitable was a much needed reassurance.

She pulled her mind away from her musings and opened the passenger side door, but before she could toss her bag inside and onto the back seat along with two other bags, a modern black Dodge Charger pulled up next to the vehicle. She dropped her bag into the passenger seat and closed the door to walk around the front of the classic Charger to meet the arrivals.

André turned off the ignition and put the vehicle in park then he and Tori exited his vehicle wearing smiles on their respective faces.

Jade cautiously asked the pair, "Hey… what are you doing here?"

Tori's smile somewhat faltered as she answered, "We heard that you were just going to…" The brunette made a sweeping motion with her right hand out and away from her body as she finished with a forced laugh, "Go off? And we wanted to say bye if that's the case."

Jade let a smile play on her face as she leaned back to rest her behind on the front of the car and support herself by palming the end of the hood on either side of her. She smiled at the lighter brunette as she answered, "Freddie would appreciate that. It's actually a road trip without a destination. We're going to see California. Freddie wants to at least make our way to San Francisco; he wants to see if there's a chance to meet the Mythbusters."

The lighter brunette asked with a soft, but nervous laugh, "Any particular reason why you're heading out?"

Jade smirked at her, but decided to be honest with her, "We just want to get away from everything to spend some time with each other with no school or work or… crazed psychotic girls or ex-girlfriends."

André laughed out with a halfhearted joke, "While you're on your road trip, you're not going to make a detour to Vegas are you?"

Tori eyes opened wide and she pursed her lips for a moment.

Jade frowned and looked at André as if he had lost his mind. "Real funny André."

The songsmith's laughter died down and him mouth formed a crooked smile of embarrassment. "Just a little joke." He casually brush over his mouth with the top of his hand and look away.

"That's one way to describe it," she remarked with a roll of her eyes.

Tori clapped her hands in front of her and forced a laugh to ask the blue streaked hair teenager, "So how long are you going to be gone? School starts back on Wednesday."

A corner of the pale girl's mouth lifted up and her eyes narrowed on the brunette. "We haven't decided yet, but I doubt you'll see us on Wednesday or Thursday… probably not until Monday."

Tori snorted out a breath and shook her head.

The sound of the door from the kitchen to the garage opening caught the three teenager's attention. Jade turned her head while the pair looked passed her to see Freddie struggling out the door carrying a suitcase in each of his hands.

André quickly jogged up to help him and offered to take one of the suitcases which Freddie gladly accepted the offer and handed him the one in his left hand. They reached the back of the car then Freddie pulled his keys from his jeans' pocket and opened the trunk of the Charger. He slid in one suitcase into the trunk while André slid in the other one next to it.

Before Freddie could close the trunk, André spoke up with a soft laugh, "Road trip with the girlfriend?"

The brown eyed teenager grinned, "Yep… just the two of us to get away from everything and just be us like we had together that first week when it was just the two of us at the workshop."

"Sounds like a great idea." The songsmith closed the trunk for him and then reached into his jacket pocket. He handed Freddie a thumb-drive and the tech producer glanced down at the blue piece of computer hardware between his fingers then looked back to the songsmith with a curious expression, "What's this?"

André laughed softly and pointed to the thumb-drive. "Road tunes in case you want something else to listen to that's different than what you have in either of your play lists."

"Thanks," he answered with a grateful smile.

As the two friends were talking, Jade pushed off the front of the car and walked around the car and Tori to open the passenger door. She picked up her bag she dropped in her seat then tossed her it in the backseat then slipped into her seat. She kept the door open and looked to Tori with a hesitant expression who had followed her to the door, "Tori?"

"Yeah?"

The darker brunette cleared her throat then cautiously began, "Thanks… thanks for being there for him… for me."

The lighter brunette gave her an embarrassed smile.

However, before things could get mushy between the frienemies, Jade looked over her shoulder and out the opened door to see Freddie and André still talking after closing the trunk.

Jade called out, "Freddie, we're burning daylight!"

Freddie let out a soft laugh as the pair looked to the impatient teenager. They made their way over to meet the girls then Freddie looked over to his friend and smiled. "André?"

The songwriter gave a friendly nod and answered, "Freddie?"

They shared a quick handshake then a quick one arm hug.

He looked over to a smiling Tori and was surprised by the quick hug she gave him. She whispered into his ear before letting him go, "See you when you get back."

He smiled in return when she pulled away and commented, "We'll see you when we see you." He looked to them one last time and commented solemnly, "Thanks for everything."

They raised their respective hands to wave then Freddie walked around the back of the car and slid into his seat and pulled his door shut with an audible secure slam.

Jade pulled her door shut and put on her seatbelt.

He glanced over to her with a smirk and asked playfully while putting on his seatbelt, "So you're going to drive at night, right?"

Jade pulled out her sunglasses from her flannel patterned shirt pocket then slid them on her face with a soft laugh.

The brown eyed teenager joined her in laughter as he started up the muscle car.

He put the passenger window down and the couple waved at the pair. They took a step back so Freddie could safely pull away out of the driveway and shouted out their farewells as the Charger pulled into the road.

Tori casually shuffled her feet and stuck her hands in her jean pockets while she commented idly watching the car drive out of sight, "A week by themselves."

André gave a nod as he let a smile form on his face, "I think they deserve it. It's not everyday you realize that you're in love with a girl, especially after everything they've gone through to get here. It's kind of nice to celebrate that."

Tori glanced over to her friend and gave him an awkward smile. "Sounds like an idea for a song."

He softly laughed and answered, "Yes it does, but after I write it, you'll record it for me."

She hesitantly asked with a playful smile, "You're not concern about me singing it?"

His brow instantly furled as he asked with concern, "Why would I be concerned?"

She turned and took a step forward to him with a smirk on her face to answer him, "Because… you might fall in love with _me_ this time."

André looked down and shook his head as he bit his tongue trying to hold back a laugh while the lovely brunette burst into laughter.

Shay Apartment  
>Bushwell Plaza<br>Seattle, WA  
>Monday, January 2, 2012<p>

The morning was still dreary from the lingering clouds from the storms that passed over much of the West Coast the previous night passing over the city as Carly, still in her pajamas of a spaghetti strap tank top and pajama pants, sat on the couch in the living room staring at the television. She wasn't really paying attention to the rerun Girly Cow episode displaying on the screen or the half eaten breakfast sitting on the coffee table in front of her as she had tuned out the world.

She was alone in the apartment as Spencer was out and about doing something; she wasn't too sure what exactly he was doing, just that he wanted to be out after a day of observation in the hospital. She had sent Sam, Brad and Gibby out of the apartment with the instruction of not coming back for a while as she just wanted to be alone. None of the teenagers had the courage to challenge her wishes through a combination of their pity for her and fear of her if they crossed her.

She didn't know how much time had passed as her eyes were unfocused on the television when a reverberating knocking started coming from the front door. She ignored the sound initially until the knocking started becoming louder and becoming a distraction in her self torture with her thoughts. The brunette blew out an irritated breath and got up from the couch and headed for the door.

She didn't bother looking through the peephole and simply opened the door while mumbling under her breath if it was Lewbert bothering her, she would kill him on the spot. Fortunately it wasn't the annoying doorman, but still blinked in surprise at seeing the person on the other side of the threshold.

Beck gave her a grateful and relieved smile at seeing her as he casually stood on the other side of the door with his hands stuck in his pockets.

She asked with an exhausted tone, "What do you want?"

His smile slipped into a frown as he replied with a concerned tone, "I was worried."

She turned and headed back to the couch, leaving him at the door.

"You never returned my call_s_," he called out as he followed her into the apartment.

She sarcastically asked, "So you hopped on a plane to come up and see how I was doing? How did you pull that off without any noticing?"

He shook his head as he shut the door behind him, "Yes I did and they think I had to go to Canada for a family emergency."

She plopped herself back on the couch and tried to get comfortable with tucking her legs under herself. She flippantly asked, "Why?"

He took a seat on the coffee table in front of her and answered with a stern voice, "Because I'm your friend."

She looked down to avoid meeting his eyes. "Maybe you shouldn't be. I'll just screw that up too."

The long haired teenager shook his head and closed his eyes. He opened his eyes to see that she was still directing her gaze to the floor with a downcast expression. He had seen the same look before when they talked after finding out that her father was a first going to miss his birthday and obviously before Freddie was able to pull off his trick to get the daughter and father to speak to one another on the Colonel's birthday.

He remembered the sting he felt at the lack of comfort his words gave her the last time, but this time so he leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her smaller frame.

She sucked in a surprised breath from the contact, but didn't fight his embrace. She actually leaned into it and he allowed her to cradle her head in the crook of his neck. He gently rocked with her as he ran his hand up and down her back in an attempt to comfort her.

They were like that for seconds that stretched out into minutes until Carly let out a sob and started crying. The actor pulled her a little tighter to him to let her know that he wasn't going anywhere.

She sobbed out, "He told me to go to Hell."

Beck frowned at the commented then whispered, "I know… I heard through Tori, but it's going to be alright."

She lifted her head off of his shoulder and looked him dead in the eyes with a fierce expression then shouted, "Alright! How can you say it's going to be alright? Are seriously? He wants me to go to Hell! There's nothing left. We were going to be friends and now it's all gone!"

Beck shook his head. "I don't think so." He bowed his head slightly as he continued, "There's still hope and a chance."

Her brow furled and looked to him as if he had completely lost his mind. "Hope? Where?"

"Freddie and Jade may…" He glanced away as he forced the words out, "_hate you_ for the moment, but…" He looked up to meet her eyes again and continued, "You still have me and from what I've heard, Dusty doesn't think you planned to get held hostage by Nora. Jade may not be the most open to listen in regards to you, but I'm still her friend and my word still means something if used carefully and Dusty apparently has Freddie's confidence and I think we can use that."

He pulled his right hand away from the small of her back and delicately cupped her left cheek so he could look her straight into the eyes. "But Carls… If you and I have any chance of fixing this you _have_ to tell me the truth."

She blinked and looked to him with confusion as she asked, "On what exactly?"

He leaned forward closer and he took a quick breath then asked with worry filling his voice and asked, "Did you go to the hearing in the hopes that Nora would try what she did and that Freddie would come up to save you?"

Carly took in a sharp breath and just stared at the handsome teenager.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Officially this story is done, but I'm going to add my last comedic chapter next week as a bridge way to the next story. It's my take on Blooptorious. 'We Love Each Other' should be out this fall. Oh, and just a random comment, Liz went back to her natural brunette color from Season 1 of Victorious and may have added some blonde to it. I think it's hard to tell since both pictures so far are done with a very bright light source next to her. Also, Nathan Kress has started filming some new movie. I wish them both the best.<p>

Finally, I'd like to give a lot of shout outs to all that reviewed and supported me on this story over the last eight months (in order of review): Nashia23, LanternFan, Twilight Warrior 627, Jeremy Shane, BushwellFanNYC, Urias, Eletrickkid, PD31, Techygirl, jackpotdante, xTeionx, IntrovertedMind, eva017, Jonathan 81, 'Person', 'Guest", Wickedmatt717, SirRay, A Writer's Right to Write, ArtisticAngel6, Captain Black Feather, CartoonistGirl6, Rubbyy, daytrigg, The Reading Wizard, EddieVF, Agent-M-0167, 'Meeee', and Crovus.

Thanks everyone for reading and I hope you continuing with the next story and my other works.


	36. Chapter 36: iBloopTorious: JLNG Edition

Author's Note: Wow, a week turned in to four months really quickly. Sorry about that. I hope that you enjoy this comedic chapter that wraps up the story as a bridge way to the next story.

I hope everyone enjoys.

* * *

><p>Chapter 36<p>

iBlooptorious: Jade Likes Nice Guys Edition

Starring Victoria Justice

Leon Thomas III, Matt Bennett, Elizabeth Gillies, Ariana Grande, Avan Jogia, Daniella Monet, with Christopher Cane

And Nathan Kress as Freddie Benson

Special Guest Star: Miranda Cosgrove

Special Guest Star: Jennette McCurdy

Special Guest Appearance by Jennifer Connelly as Ruby West

Christopher Cane (in the form of Rex Powers) sat in the large cushioned chair as Leon departed and his next guest took her seat off camera. He spoke happily as he held his apple juice in one hand, "She plays the most unique kind of nasty girl on Victorious. I recall the first time I met Elizabeth. It was at our final audition and she asked me if I could point her to the ladies' loov. Prior to that, I had the good fortune of seeing her perform on Broadway in the musical 13. Now she plays Jade West, a wicked thorn in the shapely ribs of Tori Vega. I give you Elizabeth or dare I say Liz Gillies."

The audience started clapping and cheering as Liz smiled at Christopher sitting in a couch that replaced the chair the other actors had been sitting in for their interviews. The dark brunette wore a dark red, almost burgundy colored top that zipped up to just above her cleavage with slightly puffy and pleated shoulders. She wore a loose black skirt that reached down just past her mid-thigh with pair of black heels that accentuated her legs with her hair was pulled back behind her ears.

She answered with a bright smile, "Thank you for that sweet introduction."

He snapped off a quick question, "If you were a bottle of shampoo, what would be your fragrance?"

Liz put on a perplex expression as she asked, "My… my, fragrance?"

"Yes, in a perfect world, you'd smell like what?"

She laughed out unsure of what he meant, but answered, "I, I don't know, maybe a combination of vanilla and mint?"

"Wrong!" he answered frantically with a motion of his apple juice filled glass.

The dark brunette put on a perplexed expression as she asked with surprise, "Wrong?"

"You'd smell like of lilac and roasted nuts."

She let out a soft laugh as she replied, "Ah, okay, that sounds pretty cool too."

"Let's talk about socks."

The actress was caught off by another one of the host's odd questions and asked for clarification, "Socks?"

He slightly motioned to her with his glass as he asked, "Should socks be more like gloves with small sleeves where each toe could be inserted?"

Liz's brow slightly knotted and softly laughed, "Ah, no not really, I think normal socks—"

"Shall we view your bloopers?"

She let out a soft laugh as she asked, "Ah, okay, yeah sure do you have them here? Do you have the cued up?"

"Yes including some from the miniseries, view them with me by gazing into this high definition monitor."

"Sure," she agreed with a bit of a smile on her face.

The pair turned to look at the monitor situated between them.

Vega Residence

Tori took a seat on the couch and pulled an arm back to rest on the backrest with André following suit. She wore a black wig with green hair extension and other dark blue and black clothing to make her look like Jade. She answered his question, "Deal with it." She leaned forward to meet his eyes and finished in a menacing tone, "if you and I are ever boyfriend/girlfriend, I'll be _way meaner to you_."

André leaned towards Tori and closed his eyes.

Tori started in concern as she saw what he was starting to do, "Ah, hey now, what are you—"

"Oh Jade," he whispered with a husky voice.

Liz poked her head from behind the couch to be beside and between the pair and shouted, "What are you doing?!"

"Whoa," Leon shouted as he slipped off the couch then to his feet walking off trying not to laugh.

Liz wore a smug look on her face as she leaned forward against the couch's backrest with her arms spread out on either side of her and her hands gripping the backrest. She softly clapped the next moment while Victoria's mouth dropped open and pointed up at Liz with her pointer finger. Liz leaned down to wrap her arms around Victoria's shoulders as both girls smiled and Victoria jolly asked, "Hey?"

Freddie's Hotel Room

Jade opened the light brown door of the hotel room and rested the side of her head against the open door edge. She was wearing Freddie's blue and white flannel patterned shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and the hem that went just past her rear and wearing a pair of his blue boxers. "Hi Carly," Jade greeted her with a curt tone.

"Ja—Jade?" the brunette puttered out at seeing the unexpected face.

The paler teenager replied flippantly, "Yes, it's me. What do you want?" She eyed the brunette as she poked just the tip of her tongue out past her lips and licked out the corner of her mouth and thumbed over her bottom lip with the pad of her right thumb. "You're interrupting my breakfast."

Miranda asked with a straight face, "I thought I was interrupting your dessert?"

The raven haired teenager shook her head as she broke her stern expression with a barely contained laugh and raised a hand to wave everyone off then took a step back inside and shut the door.

Miranda took a step back backwards and covered her mouth as she started to laugh as she looked over her shoulder to the camera. The brunette shook off the laughter and put on an even expression as she retook her mark.

After a moment Liz opened the door against and rested her head against the edge to try to start again, but at seeing Miranda's smiling face, she just broke into another laugh and completely shut the door.

They could hear from the other side of the door from Liz, "I'm going to have a little more of my dessert and get some pants on. My legs are freezing!"

Miranda started laughing again and shaking her head.

Black Box Theater

Cat eagerly approached, passing several other students eagerly preparing for the shoot, to greet the dark haired teenager, "Hi."

Jade raised a curious eyebrow at the redhead and asked, "Hi… why are you here?"

Cat laughed as she replied obviously to her mind, "We wanted to see you perform and hang out this afternoon."

Tori and André had caught up with Cat to meet up with Jade. Tori picked up with a grin, "You know, just like you were there for me to watch me land on the air sack."

Jade put on a sour expression and narrowed her eyes on the cheerful brunette.

Freddie approached from Jade's right just in time to hear the last of Tori's statement. Freddie gave the arriving trio a friendly nod then asked with a curious expression and raised eyebrow, "Air sack?"

Jade sighed with a half roll of her eyes, "When she… ah stunt work… she fell in a sack… a sack full of air okay?"

Nathan grinned and nodded trying his best not to laugh, "Right, sack filled with air, air sack. She fell in it, because that's what you do: fall in it."

Ariana covered her mouth to suppress a laugh as Victoria shook her head.

Liz blew out a breath then rattled off the line, "She fell on an air sack for the stunt work she did."

The director shouted from behind the camera, "Take it from the top."

Freddie's Hotel Room  
>Saturday, July 23, 2011<p>

…Carly looked to Freddie and started with a tired tone, "Look, having Sam in your life is like owning a wild chimp."

Freddie cocked his head to the side and wondered if he heard the brunette correctly.

Jade resisted rolling her eyes at what she knew was going to be some kind of ridiculous explanation.

Carly began whimsically, "Sure she is unpredictable, she can go berserk and chew your foot off, but you keep her clean and well fed she's adorable…" Carly wrapped an arm around Sam's shoulders and smiled towards Freddie, "and cool and tons of fun."

Freddie replied calmly, "No, she's—"

Carly spoke up, "She said she was sorry! And she really meant it."

He frowned and looked coldly at the brunette. Carly's smile faltered as the coldness of his stare sent a shiver through her and her arm slipped off of Sam's shoulders.

There was a chill to his voice that Carly had never heard and stirred a bit of concern inside her heart, "As I was saying… no, she's not a wild chimp… she's a mean _bitch_ that will jank me over any way she can. I can't seem to get it through your thick head how much she hurts me and now she is willing to screw with my life plans. You may be willing to accept all that from her and love her unconditionally, but I'm not and I'm not dealing with her or you anymore. You've shown me with your attitude about my feelings with me losing my trip to NERD camp and my chance to go to any college I want that you don't give a damn about me and you don't care what she does to me." He pointed to Sam and continued, "And that _bitch_ outright hates me and will never be genuine sorry about anything because she'll never see what she does is wrong and you'll always excuse it and enable her behavior further. If you think what she does to me is what friendship and love is about then you need some serious psychological help and just as janked up as she. Now get the out of my life!"

The blonde grabbed his wrist of his outstretched arm pointing at her and yanked forward. The next moment Freddie was being flipped over Sam's right shoulder.

He growled in pain as his back and the back of his head smacked the carpeted living room floor. He rolled on to his left shoulder as he coughed trying to catch the breath that was knocked out of him. His hearing was muffled and his right shoulder felt like it was on fire as his left hand palmed it. He rolled over with a groan onto his right shoulder he was sure was dislocated and looked up at the cold blue eyes and hate filled face. He saw that look once before: the time she nearly killed him by beating him over the head with a tennis racket in Fred's tree house. He grunted as he pulled himself up into a sitting position and glared right back at her.

"So I'm a bit—AHHH!" Sam screamed in pain as her head jerked upwards and looked to the ceiling.

"Yes you are!" Jade's voice shouted enraged behind the blonde and grabbed hold of Sam's blonde locks at around her neck for dear life. The pale singer jerked her body around and flung Sam by the hair towards and downwards at the square dinning room table. Sam's forehead smacked hard against the wooden table and the sound reverberated throughout the hotel room. Jade yanked the web-hostess up and twisted around putting her entire weight into flinging Sam around her and towards the kitchen. Jade let loosened her grip, but did tear some of Sam's hair out as the blonde went face first into the linoleum floor.

Sam's vision was blurred and her head was ringing with pain, but she found the strength to pull her face off the floor and turned over slowly just in time to see Jade's left fist come at her face. The singer clocked the blonde good on the right side of her face and Jennette shouted, "OW! You really hit me."

Liz sucked in a breath and covered her mouth as she stepped back. She knelt down an instant later and shouted in concern, "Oh my God Jen! Are you alright?"

Jennette sat up and started laughing as she cupped her right cheek. The blonde waved Liz off along with Miranda, Nathan and some of the crew that were instantly by her side. However they ignored her and decided to let Liz and Miranda hold her by the arms to help her to her feet. She laughed as she looked to Elizabeth on her left, "Jez girl, you got a mean left hook."

Liz started opening and closing her left fist. She hissed out with a soft laugh under it, "Your face isn't exactly that soft either."

Miranda whispered out with soft admonishment of her co-star, "I told you that you should have used a stunt double."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll remember that next time!" She massaged her right cheek and looked past them to Dan to ask, "Do I get worker's comp?"

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Jade shrugged her left shoulder and answered without much care, "I guess so."

Freddie's smile faulted as he nodded his head and tried to keep his voice up just as cheerful as when he approached her, "Okay, I'll see you after class."

She moved in for a kiss, but he slightly pulled back. She stopped and something just snapped in her head.

Jade pulled back to give him a hard glare and a deep frown then grabbed him by the wrist. She started dragging him down the hall and past the stairwell towards the janitor's closet as he wore a look of complete shock on his face as he asked, "Jade?" The movement and his voice caught the attention of the other students in the hallway and stairwell, but she ignored them as she opened the door and dragged him inside, however Liz stumbled as her feet hit something in the dark room. Thankfully, Liz still had a good grip on Nathan's wrist to halt her fall just enough for him to realize what was happen and was able to grab her with his other arm to stop her fall by quickly pulling her back to him.

He instinctively wrapped his arms around her as she laughed out while softly patting his chest. She blew out soft breath to blow away some of her curls fell in her face. She looked around his muscular arm and sighed out loudly, "I can't make out with my boyfriend in peace when someone decided to use the closet as a closet!"

The extras and the crew started laughing at her complaint.

"And why is it that dark? I don't remember it being that dark!"

Nathan laughed out, "I guess they didn't want anyone playing 'Seven minutes in Heaven'?"

The teenage extras particularly laughed at their co-star's joke.

Liz raised her fake pierced eyebrow as she commented, "You need more than seven minutes."

**An Evening with Victorious Set**

Christopher commented with a cheerful tone, "Well Liz, it seems even a professional actress such as yourself occasionally flubs her dialogue."

She slightly titled her head to her right shoulder and warmly replied, "You know, I think the whole cast of Victorious is usually pretty good about knowing their lines, but for whatever reason—"

The puppet form of Christopher rudely interrupted her, "Now let's meet someone really interesting."

Liz blinked then looked off to her right off stage with a perplexed expression, but it was quickly replaced with a warm smile at seeing the handsome young man having a seat next to her. He warmly smiled in return as he got comfortable in his seat.

"I'd like to introduce our next guest. You know him well as the Technical-Producer Freddie Benson on the hit Nickelodeon show iCarly and having just starred in TeenNick's original iCarly/Victorious crossover miniseries _iActually Like Mean Girls_. I'd like you all to give a warm welcome to the newest cast member of the Victorious family, Nathan Kress."

The crowed behind the camera started clapping and cheering for a few moments as Nathan waved with a smile to the audience, gave a polite nod to Liz then nodded to Christopher.

"I'm glad to be here. Thank you for the warm welcome."

Christopher softly laughed, "I have to be nice to you or Nick Cannon said he'd have me fired regardless of how much Dan would want to keep me and they'd strike a deal with Disney to replace me with a Muppet."

Nathan and Liz simultaneously made an O shape with their lips as they glanced to one another. The young man softly laughed, "Well, you may want to be nice to her too for the same reason."

Christopher paused and the pair stared at one another. The shorter actor was the first to flinch. "Anyway, what made you decide to dump iCarly and move over to our fabulous show? Mmm…" Christopher asked and motioned towards him still holding his apple juice.

Nathan nodded with an awkward smile as he answered, "Well, it was big decision to move from iCarly over to Victorious, so I wouldn't describe it as dumping the show—"

"You left the show you've been working on for the last four years to jump on to our fabulous ship."

Nathan gave him a slight frown and gave him a slightly disapproving expression. He started off with a dry tone, "It was a risky move," then picked up with a more cheerful tone, "but it was decided near the end of filming the miniseries that having Freddie stay in Los Angeles opened up a lot of creative possibilities both on iCarly and Victorious with built in crossover potential. As I was able to come back for a few episodes already which was a lot of fun to be back."

Chris softly laughed in the attempts to provoke a response from the actor, "And some of those creative possibilities included having a very steamy on screen romance with Liz Gillies."

Nathan let out a nervous chuckle and looked way from Chris for a brief moment. He looked over to his co-star who was grinning at him apparently enjoying that Chris put him on the hot seat. He finally diplomatically answered with a big grin on his face, "Working with Liz is a real joy and pleasure. I can't praise her enough in how much she has helped me just slip right into the cast who really are a family and her shear professionalism is inspiring."

Liz bowed her head slightly and started showing a little bashfulness. She reached over and patted his hand resting on his knee and answered, "Nathan just showing how kind and sweet he is."

He chuckled, "It's not being sweet Liz, it's the truth."

Christopher interrupted, "Speaking of your on screen romance, some of those scenes during the miniseries must have been quite tricky to film with you and Liz."

Nathan chuckled and quickly raised his brow and dropped it. He glanced over to Liz who was softly biting her bottom lip and softly shaking her head. He took a breath and answered, "Yes, quite tricky… but like I said, Liz is such a professional and as tricky and awkward it could have been to film such scenes, we got through them just fine."

Liz laughed to interrupt, "I'd say it was due to how much of a gentleman he is. I've never filmed such scenes and Nathan made me feel quite comfortable and I think that's something we're always going to disagree on."

The pair shared a smile as Chris pointed out, "In any case, I guess that's why it was on TeenNick instead?"

Nathan answered, "Of course, we obviously couldn't show some of those scenes on regular Nick, but I understand that they may show it on Nick at Night at some point, possibly during some holiday weekend."

Liz laughed out, "They can finally see it in HD."

Chris laughed along with her then pointed out, "Yes, see you two in those scenes in HD."

The dark haired teenager looked away embarrassed while Nathan frowned at the puppet.

Christopher laughed at his own joke and continued, "Let's see some of your goofs."

The pair quickly answered together, "Yes."

Freddie Benson's Hotel Room  
>Extended Stay America<br>6531 S. Sepulveda Blvd.  
>Los Angeles, CA 90045<br>Tuesday, July 5, 2011

As Freddie started pulling out their takeout and sitting them on the table, he pointed over, "I even have a separated bedroom instead of the studio arrangement."

"So this really is going to be a home away from home for you?"

"Yep and I intend to enjoy every moment of it," he laughed as he sat out her order beside his intended seat.

Jade noticed that he sat her and his meal in seats cattycorner instead of across, but didn't comment. "Then why are you hanging out with me instead of all the happy go lucky people that want to jump you for being the famous Freddie Benson?"

"Maybe I actually like nice girls that'll treat me as Freddie instead of Freddie 'iCarly' Benson," he replied as he took his seat.

"I'm not nice," she replied with a mischievous smile as she took the seat to his right.

He let out a soft chuckle. "Then I actually like mean girls that will treat me as Freddie, satisfied?"

"You think you can satisfy me?"

Freddie chuckled then leaned over so that their faces were just inches apart. "Is that a—"

The Rolling Stones song _'I Can't Get No Satisfaction'_ started blaring from behind the camera.

Liz and Nathan turned their attention towards the camera and without missing a beat started swaying their respective shoulders in time with one another and singing smugly, "I can't get no… satisfaction. I can't get no… satisfaction." The pair turned to each other and continued to sing, "'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try…"

"CUT!" Dan shouted from somewhere from behind the camera.

Wok Star

Jade shook her head in disbelief to the childish answer. "You forget to find out that you were going to the worst country on Earth before you booked your trip and depended on the word of the guy that talks to himself in his trailer as if someone else is in there with him? I think you have a little responsibility for what happened."

"Hey!"

Beck glanced to Jade and raised a hand slightly. "Maybe you need to chill or—"

She glanced hard at her ex and snapped, "Or what?"

"I'm not going to speak to you for the rest of the night. You going to chill?"

Jade frowned as she turned her attention to her plate.

The rest of them at the table remained silent for moment until that uneasy silence was broken by the sound of something snapping. They looked to Freddie and saw that the plastic fork was broke in two, pressed between the top of Freddie's pointer finger and thumb of his right hand.

Jade looked to Freddie and saw the determined expression on his face as he looked directly at Beck. She was confused about it for a moment.

Beck wore an apprehensive look as he returned the look Freddie was giving him: a guarded stare directed at him by the shorter teenager. Freddie didn't take his eyes off of Beck as he commented, "I think I just cut myself."

Everyone at the table paused for a moment then busted out laughing as Nathan let of the fork then sucked on the pad of his thumb. He mumbled through a chuckled response, "That really hurt."

Liz covered her mouth with one hand and laid her other hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.

Nathan looked passed Liz and asked still laughing, "Can I get another fork?"

West Residence

At first Freddie didn't think he knocked loud enough, however, a few moments later the door opened and he took in a quick breath as he saw Jade on the other side of the threshold. She wore a black spaghetti strap top with an apparent seam cut down the center from the hem of the shirt to just under her breasts and underneath the shirt a visible black bikini top. She was wearing a long dull dark blue skirt that reached her ankles and sandals on her feet. On top of her head sat a large brim black hat.

"Hi," he was able to choke out as he finished his once over glance of her then met her eyes.

She smiled bashfully and nodded as she replied, "Hi."

They just looked at each other for a few moments as neither apparently knew what to say. Jade pulled her bag tighter on her right shoulder as he held his stare upon her. She looked down at herself and was apparently self-conscious about her appearance as she quickly replied, "I burnt last time instead of tanned."

He blinked as his gaze broke then spitted out with surprise, "What?"

She cleared her throat and continued to look down unable to meet his eyes as she spoke, "The outfit… after we got out of the RV the last time we went to the beach, I kind of burned instead of tanned that afternoon."

He knew he was probably going to insert his foot into his mouth, but he had to say it anyway, "Oh, I was just thinking how… sexy you looked in the outfit." Nathan closed his eyes and shook his head as he realized he just sabotaged Liz's next line.

"That's her line! It's suppose to be 'hot'!" the director shouted with a laugh from somewhere behind the camera.

Liz shook her head then lifted it up with a smile playing on her lips.

"I know!" he shouted as he looked over his shoulder. "I know, but doesn't she already know she's hot?"

"Don't forget she thinks she's cool too," Liz readily agreed then stepped backwards inside and shut the door.

"I guess that's why she doesn't sweat either!" he shouted through the door with a laugh. He took a quick breath and blew out it then retook his position ready to try again.

Liz opened the door and put back on her bashful expression, but instantly broke at seeing Nathan still smiling. She stepped back inside and shouted with a hint of frustration, "Nathan!"

The young man softly laughed.

Lane Alexander's Guidance Counselor's Office  
>Hollywood Arts High School<p>

"That's what really happened," Rex finished confidently.

Jade glared at Robbie and Rex.

Lane turned and looked to Freddie. "Freddie, would you care to share what you saw before the play?"

André stood up clearly irritated with the situation. "So none of you people want me to have a pretty girlfriend is that it?" They looked to him with bewilderment as he continued counting off with his fingers, "I find myself a Keeko, I make myself a Keeko date and nobody cares. Well that's cool, go on Freddie tell us what happened and start from the beginning. Just start from Adam and Eve and go from there!" The irate songsmith in disgust took a seat beside the Seattle native.

Lane motioned to Freddie and instructed, "Just tell us what happened."

Freddie shook his head and replied calmly, "No."

"No?"

Freddie shrugged a shoulder, "I told you already: you're just going to blame me anyway and I'm not wasting my breath telling you what happened 'from my unique point of view'." He thumbed over to André. "I'm not wasting time and having André miss out on his date with Tori even if I think he can do better with someone else."

Leon grinned while pointing to the prop phone as he corrected, "Keeko. I'm going on a date with Keeko; Freddie wants me to date Tori."

Nathan bit his bottom and shook his head then shouted, "Wrong girl."

Christopher spoke with his British accent as he sat on Robbie's lap, "Way to go, completely mix up the girls."

Nathan rolled his eyes and laughed, "Oh how sorry that I jumped the gun. You want to switch places and deliver my line?"

Matt raised his left hand to wave off that suggestion with an even tone, "Hey, I don't want you sitting on my lap."

The cast instantly broke out laughing at Matt's ability to deliver the line with a straight face while Rex/Chris' mouth dropped open in surprise.

Shay Apartment  
>Seattle, WA<br>Saturday, November 5, 2011

The three went back to eating their lunch with Freddie wearing a satisfying expression on his face.

The multiple hissing sound of blowing up balloons finally caught Carly's attention. The brunette looked over her shoulder and over the kitchen counter with a raised eyebrow at seeing what Sam was doing with the helium tank. She stood up and walked around the counter and curiously asked the blonde, "Sam what are you doing?"

Sam casually replied, "Oh, just tying Freddie's phone to a balloon."

Freddie brow furled in an instant and reached into his HA athletic jacket pocket hanging on the back of the chair. He found his pocket empty and turned to glare at her. He immediately stood from his seat and walked around the counter to stand beside Carly in the living room.

The dirty blonde smirked as she released the balloon and it floated to the ceiling.

Freddie calmly asked, "Sam?"

"Oh alright," she smiled out her response then raised a straw directed at the balloon then blew hard on one end of the straw.

The balloon popped and the phone dropped on the wooden coffee table then harmless bounced off the table.

The teenagers looked at the sight for a moment then Jennette looked over to the crew behind the camera and laughed, "Ah… it didn't break."

The teenagers started snickering as Jennette picked the prop off the floor to look at it then started hitting the bottom of it on the coffee table. It bounced off each time she hit it on the table and complained, "Why won't you break?"

"Jen, Jen, JEN!" Dan shouted from behind the camera.

The dirty blonde lifted her head with her arm in mid-swing with the pear shaped prop. "What?"

"I think they gave you the wrong prop!"

Jennette looked to the prop in her hand and saw that it looked like all the other PearPhone props they used on both shows, but with now several dents on the bottom.

She raised her hands up and shouted innocently, "Not my fault!"

The rest started laughing at her innocent face.

He quickly focused on the task at hand, "Okay, camera is set and we are ready to go when they are."

Black Box Theater  
>Hollywood Arts High School<p>

Freddie raised a quick finger as he interrupted Sinjin, "Actually, we're going to use an additional camera." He turned back to the case and fully opened it. There was a playful grin on his face as he picked up the old workhorse of a camera he had used for years on iCarly. He whispered to himself, "Hello old friend."

Sinjin's jaw dropped as he pointed at the camera in the more muscular teenager's hands. "Is that _the_ camera?"

"What?" Freddie turned his head and asked in a sharp tone.

"The one you used on iCarly?"

Freddie answered in a slow tone, "Yep."

"Can I hold it?" Sinjin asked almost like a child that just saw a new toy he desperately wanted.

Freddie cracked a smile. "Later, let me set up for a second camera. We just have a few hours to get this done."

"Okay," Sinjin answered and brought his camera up ready to go as soon as the cast walked on stage.

"Are you ready?" Freddie heard Jade call out from behind him.

Freddie looked up from the laptop and the camera as he answered, "Almost, I just have to—" Freddie stopped as he saw Jade standing in the center of the forested set.

Freddie swallowed nervously as he saw the teenager in the mixed Renaissance and Gothic style dress. _A darker interpretation of Snow White indeed._

Jade was wearing a black wig of various knotted braids and a red bow tied in the hair. Her face was made up with light blue eyeliner and ruby red lipstick with just a touch more makeup to really enhance her naturally pale complexion for the 'Snow White' effect. The top half of the dress consisted of a form fitted, dark blue leather bodice with spaghetti straps going across her collarbone and behind her neck and allowing a nice view of her cleavage. On her shoulders were blue, puffy shoulders with red streaks just like the traditional Dingo Studios interpretation of Snow White. However, they were not actually attached to the dress, but held on with tide red ribbons around her upper arms. If he wasn't mistaken, underneath the three to four separate pieces of silky and nearly transparent gold and burgundy veils that made up the skirt, she was wearing black boy-shorts.

He tried several times to clear his throat as he eyed his girlfriend.

The pale actress gave him a knowing smile. She walked to him to invade his personal space and leaned forward as if to whisper into his left ear so he was the only one that could hear her. He could smell the faint perfume she had dabbed on her neck and feel her soft breath tickle his cheek. "Why Freddie Benson, is that lust in your eyes?" she asked in a delicate tone, and a playful smirk.

Freddie gulped like a fish out of water for a moment then cleared his throat. In a thick voice, he whispered back, "Maybe?"

She surprised him by wrapping her hands behind his neck and planting a pouty kiss on his left cheek then pulled back with a grin on her face. She left a perfect print on of her lips of red lipstick on his cheek. She started softly laughing at what she did while Nathan looked back in shock.

She released him and took a step back as he tried looking around to see if he could find anything that would show what she did. Ava conveniently had her cell phone and raised it to take a quick snapshot then handed it to Nathan. He started laughing as he looked at the photo.

He pointed with his left pointer finger at his cheek and laughed out as he looked over his shoulder to the director, "Can we just keep that? I think I'll wear this for the scene."

Liz laughed along with the rest then took a step forward to stand on his right him and wrapping her arms behind his neck and over his chest to lock her hands together on his left shoulder. The pair smiled as Ava raised her phone and took another picture.

Nathan laughed out, "I'm serious; we should edit this into the scene."

Hollywood Arts High School  
>Thursday, December 8, 2011<p>

The girls simultaneously dropped their coats to reveal some revealing and sexy Christmas outfits and André's band started playing behind them.

Freddie started in a slow whisper when he got a good look at Jade, "Oh my Go—" Freddie closed his eyes and slightly shook his head. He whispered, "Freddie… naughty thoughts lead to naughty actions…"

Beck's jaw dropped open and blinked looking at the shorter teenager. He raised his voice higher than normal conversational volume and snapped, "Oh my God indeed."

Nathan turned his head and gave Avan a curious expression and the pair soon broke into a laugh.

Avan raised his hands in apology, "Sorry—" Nathan pointed to Avan and interrupted with a laugh, "It was his fault. Entirely his fault for drooling over them."

The taller teenager softly punched Nathan on the side of his arm and complained with a soft laugh, "Thanks for the loyalty man."

"No problem!"

Chris shook his head and complained in Matt's arms, "Such on professionalism."

Hollywood United Methodist Church

Anna looked directly into Freddie's eyes as she whispered again with a hint of desperation in her voice, "_Fear not_."

He took a sharp breath as the lights in the church dimmed overhead and his attention was pulled to the lightning suddenly flashing outside the stained glassed windows when it was suppose to be a clear night. The corner of his eyes caught movement from behind Anna and saw that two shadows beginning to form behind her on the wall, but he realized that form was not the proper description. The shadows began to unfurl behind the redhead's back and he realized that the shadows were in the shape of a pair of feathery wings like those of an eagle. He took a step back as he saw a pair of shadow wings extend out in all their glory against the backdrop of the altar and the cross over her right shoulder with one last flash of light.

The brown eyed teenager held his breath and swallowed down the real fear he felt as he met the redhead's eyes.

Anna sympathetically smiled to the teenager as she took a step towards him and softly rest a hand on his shoulder. She commented with a disarming voice meant to comfort the teenager, "I prefer this method in letting people know instead of Mitch's talking card trick. It's far more what people expect and I don't mean to criticize my brother, but his method is a little too Chris Angel for my tastes."

Freddie attempted to clear his throat several times as he looked into her soft eyes.

She slightly nodded her head and answered his unasked question, "Yes Freddie, I'm an angel."

The next moment a tall candle stick holder fell over and reverberated throughout the church.

Julie dropped her hand away from Nathan's shoulder and mouth slightly dropped open and her eyes shot open as she looked passed Nathan's other shoulder. She tried not to laugh, but broke into a soft fit of laughter as she looked at the director and someone came rushing over to pick up the fallen piece of set. "Did my wings knock something over?"

Nathan joined in her laughter which caused a few of the set people to laugh at her joke.

"I don't have to extend them all the way for the next take," she stated with a wide grin which brought further laughter from the crew. "I could just make them baby wings?"

Benson Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>1:22 A.M., January 1, 2012

Freddie looked down to the floor then back up to Tori's concern eyes. He gave a soft nod as he answered, "I think I might be… what are you doing here?"

She cracked a hesitant smile and shrugged a shoulder, "I'm your friend… where else would I be?"

He cracked a thankful smile and gave her a grateful nod. She walked over and pulled him into a hug. He wrapped his arms around her slender frame. The friends held each other for a few moments before Tori pulled out of his embrace and a step back to look him up and down again. "Are you alright? Physically?"

He gave a brief nod then answered, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"We were worried…" She let out a relieved breath, yet wore a confused expression on her lovely features, "You just took off."

"Thanks, I just…" He let out a tired breath. "It's a story."

She softly bit her bottom lip and gave him a sympathetic expression. "Okay, you can tell us on the way back."

"Back?"

"Home, we've come to see that you're alright and take you back home…" She asked him with a fearful expression, "You want to go home right?"

He surprised the younger Vega sister by pulling her into another hug. She wrapped her arms back around him as she whispered, "Yes, I want to go home."

Tori smiled as she pressed her lips on his bared shoulder. She pulled back a moment later then they heard Trina purr out seductively at the entrance to the bedroom, "Yummy…"

Tori turned to see her sister standing at the door. Her mouth dropped open and looked back and forth between Freddie and her older sister and realized that she was gawking at Freddie's bare chest. She looked over at her sister in outrage and was about to shout, but the girl ran to them and Daniella shouted, "Group hug!"

The young woman ran to them and wrapped her arms around the pair. Victoria and Nathan both sighed then shouted at the same time, "Group hug!"

"CUT!" the director shouted.

West Residence  
>Los Angeles, CA<br>1:22 A.M., January 1, 2012

Dusty looked up at the brunette with an indignant expression and snapped softly, "What would you have me do Cohen? Go home and go to bed and pretend everything is alright? You can do that, but I can't and the only thing left I can do is to sit, so I sit and I wait. It may be pointless and useless and may not make one bit of difference, but I have to try."

The short brunette blew out a soft breath as she studied the teenager for a moment and contemplated her choices. She made up her mind by taking a seat on the swing next to the quickly becoming brooding teenager. He refused to meet her eyes as she cautiously looked to the teenager staring out to the other side of the street watching as the others got into their cars, particularly Beck with the actor staring back. The actor finally broke eye contact as he got into his car with Robbie getting into the passenger seat.

The director shouted, "You did it again Matt! Wrong car!"

Matt blew out a breath through clenched teeth then shouted, "I know! Sorry!" while he stepped out of Beck's car.

Dustin shouted from the porch, "What's that, number five Matty!"

Matt mockingly laughed in return. "You're hilarious Dustin!"

"That's high praise coming from a professional like you!" he laughed in return as Ava softly patted Dustin on his arm.

**An Evening with Victorious Set**

After the last clipped played, Nathan smiled and pointed to the screen and laughed out with an awkward tone, "Ah… neither of us was in that scene."

Christopher motioned with a hand. "I know; I just wanted to show how much Matt is a screw up and I like Dustin."

Liz whistled out then softly laughed with a soft shake of her head.

Christopher then continued while looking back at the camera, "We have one more very special guest for you this evening as she has been our special guest for several episodes of Victorious playing Jade West's mother, Ruby Lynn West, please welcome the beautiful, the talented and unfortunately very married, Jennifer Connelly."

Nathan and Liz got up from their seats as Miss Connelly walked onto the platform and she exchanged warm greetings with the teenagers and a cheek kiss with Liz. Nathan took a seat at the end of the couch while Liz took a seat in the middle with Jennifer sitting closest to Christopher.

"Thank you for that warm introduction," the very dark brunette smiled and nodded to Christopher as she had her legs crossed and resting her hands in her lap.

"Oh you are quite welcome. I would love to ask you your view about socks, but I'm told that we're pushing the clock and I need to ask you the question that must be on everyone's mind: 'Will there ever be a sequel to _Labyrinth_?"

Jennifer softly laughed and bowed her head.

"No, no, in all seriousness, what made you decide to grace us with you presence on our humble little show?"

Jennifer tilted her head back up and to the side slightly as she answered, "It was almost by accident really that I found out about the role. I was aware in passing of Dan's shows when I happen to run into him in L.A. We got to talking and he told me about the character and her history. I thought it was quite an interesting role, especially with the history of the character and what he has planned for her in the future."

She looked over to Liz and Nathan as she continued, "Then you have these two teenagers struggling, like most teenagers, to fundamentally find themselves, but with the risk that they could fall so easily back to what they know." She looked back to Chris as she continued, "I wanted to be a part of that story as much as my schedule would allow me."

He answered with a sweet voice as she looked at the famous actress, "Yes, quite fascinating. I know I'm always happy whenever you're set."

"Thank you Christopher, but I'm happily married," she replied picking up his flirtatious manner.

Liz leaned over to her TV mom and whispered, "You noticed that too; he did the same thing to Vic before us."

"But isn't Chris married?"

Liz shook her head and smirked.

Nathan laughed as he asked, "So do we have some clips of Miss Connelly?"

Christopher laughed for a few seconds then quickly stopped to answer in a completely serious tone, "No, we don't. She is such a professional that we have absolutely no bloopers of her… I wouldn't dare attempt to embarrass this angel."

The teenagers looked to one another and thought on that statement while Jennifer laughed. Liz asked with a surprised expression, "None? You have none?"

Jennifer whispered over, "They're saving them for the DVD extras when they release the miniseries."

Liz nodded along and smiled at the explanation.

The camera panned back to Christopher and he finished, "The show is over. I thank you all for joining me in this behind-the-scenes look into the inner workings of the television show, Victorious. And now, as you might hear my alter-ego, Rex, say on the show… I'm spiked out and I handle my bidness. Goodnight."

The crowd started clapping as the screen faded to black.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this little bit of comedy and I hope some of it was funny since ironically for a comedy showshows, I don't do much original comedy.

Also, PD31 was the one that originally pointed out how I messed up in the chapter about which car I had Robbie get into and that I make that into a blooper. For the record (since I never went back and changed it in the story), Robbie got in Sinjin's car, not Beck's car.

Thanks again to all my readers that have stuck with these stories. I hope you continue to read 'We Love Each Other' in the Victorious section.

Take care,OneHorseShay


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